Gen Three- Chapter Seventeen

They'd all told me to give up. Well, they hadn't said it that exact way. Dad and grandpa had done their best to get to our house from their airport before we had to leave for school, but with delays and traffic and complications with their taxi my siblings and I would simply have to wait until we got back from school to see them instead. I'd pouted and fussed and gotten ready regardless, but not once had my eyes stopped watching the window. The clock on the wall showed we had two minutes before we left. All my wishing power thrust towards seeing a car coming towards our house. When I glanced out the window several seconds later, my eyes stung with merry tears as familiar red faces could be seen sitting in the back seat of a bright yellow car pulling up alongside the road.

     "Dad!"

The door was slammed open as I burst outside without any regards for who was around or the commotion I was making. All I cared about was them being there, and the instant dad saw me barreling towards him he just smiled and hunkered down to prep for my impact.

Honestly, I didn't notice the collision of our bodies anyway. Dad scooped me up into his arms, spun me around, and I clung onto him like a monkey. He laughed loudly, and I hated how the sound of his voice seemed foreign after so long and how I loved that I was getting to relearn it from him finally being here in person.

     "I missed you." I spoke as I hugged him as tightly as possible.

     "I missed you too," he clung back, "Next time a hurricane destroys the city, we'll work out a better way to help that doesn't keep us away for months and months. Seriously, baby, how much have you grown? I got stronger lifting all the debris, and it still feels like you've doubled in size."

     "I've started a growth spurt! I've gotten taller by a whole inch and a half."

     "Damn. I mean, dang."

     "Dad, you can say damn around me. I don't care." I rolled my eyes, and laughed when he frowned lightly.

     "You not caring is not the problem." dad teased slightly, clearly torn between keeping me his baby girl and just letting go and accepting that I was growing up.

The problem was pushed aside as Gilly and Merlot also burst outside. Grandpa finished paying the taxi driver, taking their luggage out of the trunk, and also wandered over. My siblings complained as I refused to be let down from dad's arms, so it was a whole cheerful moment of chaos as he and grandpa did their best to get in their hugs and hellos in equal measure.

Dad finally dropped me down. After Gilly and Merlot were greeted properly, he lined us up.

     "These two really have grown." grandpa acknowledged as Gilly and I stood side by side, with my sister remaining slightly taller than me as normal.

     "I lost my first tooth!" Merlot proudly opened his mouth to show the missing hole.

     "I heard. I also heard you got a whole fifty dollars for it from the tooth fairy." dad remarked, holding back a smirk.

Gilly and I struggled not to smirk too. It had been dark when mom slipped the bill from her purse, so she mixed up the five with the fifty.

     "Yeah! I put it in my bank so I can start saving up for my own pet," Merlot explained eagerly, "I hope my other teeth come out fast."

     "Just remember that the first tooth is special. You usually don't get nearly that much for your other ones." grandpa explained as best he could.

     "That's okay. Every dollar helps!"

     "That is true." grandpa chuckled.

My heart melted with happiness. It was so good to have him and dad standing before us goofing off like always.

The two minutes before we had to leave for school had already gone by. Three minutes had passed instead, and when I looked over my shoulder I spotted mom searching around for us inside. That's when it caught her notice who had made it just in time. She and dad shared the biggest, deepest kiss I think I'd ever seen from them. I wondered after that if we would even make it to school. Blaze and Ember brought up the rear for the reunion. There were more hugs, kisses, jokes, and brilliant smiles. Dad even worked in his own short lecture for Ember's sneaking around, for which her punishment was still going on.

Merlot was the one who reminded mom we had to go. Dad offered to take us to the shuttle lot instead, but since he had no idea where he was going the idea was declined. Saying goodbye proved incredibly difficult, but knowing dad and grandpa would still be there when we returned kept my spirits high. Besides, it was also the last day of school for the year. December had come, and temperatures remained high enough for us to barely remember it was winter. Southern weather was weird. Anyway, it was the Friday before the holiday break began. Lessons were only scheduled for the first half of the day. Those wouldn't be anything more than a light review and explanation of the work assigned over the next weeks. The afternoon would be devoted to our class holiday party.

     "That's so great that they were able to make it before you left." Cream said after we told our friends of the surprise arrival.
     "Is everything fine in Berrybrook now? Will you be leaving soon?" Ephemeral wondered.
     "Hardly," Gilly sighed a bit, "The rain still continued even after the hurricane left, just as everyone predicted. Of course it's all snow up there now. The recovery effort is painfully slow, and grandpa and dad said they didn't even get a chance to think about looking to rebuild the house. Their plan is to stay here until the snow melts and it gets warm again. Then they'll go back, survey the situation, see how much more they want to contribute to the clean up, and then come up with a plan for what they're going to do with our place."
     "That sounds so challenging, but it's nice they'll be around for a few months." Ethereal smiled.
     "You guys should still come around after school. You can meet them." I suggested.
     "Is that alright? We don't want to intrude on your family time."
     "It's fine. We planned to have you over today since the start of the week. Grandpa and dad were the ones who decided to come a day early." I reassured.

Ethereal and Ephemeral looked excited. Cream looked disappointed. Her family had other plans, so she wouldn't be able to make it to our house no matter what. Meeting more of our family would have to come at a later day for her. The three of them wandered towards their desks when the five minute warning bell went off. Gilly and I lingered as we'd set up our things beforehand, and even if we hadn't we would have been stopped anyway. None of us had noticed that Mr. Divine had made his way into the classroom.

     "I hope you don't mind, I didn't meant to eavesdrop. I heard your grandfather and father have finally made their way down here, is that right?" our teacher wondered.
     "Yup!" Gilly confirmed.
     "They got here this morning." I added.
     "That's great. I'm glad for you two. Will your father be joining your mother for parent-teacher conferences on Monday then?"
     "Oh, I'm sure he will. Dad never misses an opportunity to embarrass us during them even though we're obviously never even there. That's how bad he can be." I sighed.
     "I'll make sure to ignore him." Mr. Divine laughed.
     "Please do." Gilly nodded.

The morning dragged on excruciatingly slow. Honestly, I'd rather Mr. Divine just do normal classes. New material would at least be somewhat distracting. No matter how interesting he tried to keep the old material it just didn't do anything to draw attention. A whole half of the class obviously shifted their focus to daydreaming or doodling, and Mr. Divine nicely just smiled, shook his head slightly, and finished fulfilling his duty that didn't seem to be interesting to him today either. The second half of the day sped by without warning. Games were played, prizes were won, food was eaten, pictures were taken, and the final bell rung. Almost everyone else begged for a few more minutes and dragged their feet when our teacher ushered them out of the room. My sister and I didn't. We probably would have, but we had something else to look forward to. Gilly and I bounced in our seats the whole shuttle ride. Mom didn't say anything about Ethereal and Ephemeral clamoring into the back seats of the car with us, Ember, and Merlot for the drive home. We only hit several red lights. Relief swelled my chest seeing dad and grandpa sitting right there in the living room chatting about some nonsense with Blaze.

Ember had been the first one in the door, so she wandered over to say her hellos and give hugs before heading to her room to put her things away.

     "You all have a good last day?" dad wondered.
     "Yeah! I won this!" Merlot answered merrily.

He held up a vague, gun shaped object molded in plastic. When he pulled the trigger, there was a subtle whoosing noise before a short burst of air erupted from the wide end to brush Gilly's face and hair with wind as if he'd just vigorously waved a folding fan in front of her.

     "It'd be more annoying if it didn't feel kind of good. He wouldn't stop playing with it in the back seat." Gilly explained with a light smile.
     "I can imagine so." dad laughed.
     "Oh, grandpa, dad, these are two of our friends that we've mentioned before, by the way. This is Ethereal and Ephemeral Chalcedony." I introduced them as I noticed the other twins had been wiggling somewhat nervously.
     "Hello." dad gave them a smile.
     "Nice to meet you." grandpa replied as well.

Our friends, but mostly Ethereal, continued to look sheepish, and the pair practically mumbled back their greetings. It was a huge change from their normal confident demeanor, and when I noticed how Ethereal was glancing timidly at grandpa with a look of awe I grinned widely upon realizing the reason for the attitude shift.

     "They're total fangirls of grandma, so I think they're a bit overwhelmed meeting you." I revealed to him, as he'd also noticed their attention.
     "Dia..." Ephemeral chided quietly, giving my arm a shake.
     "We just think she was really cool." Ethereal explained hopelessly.
     "She was," grandpa smiled as expected, looking amused, sympathetic, and full of nostalgia all at the same time before getting a glint in his eye, "Would you two like me to show you how she styled her hair? You have the perfect length for doing it right."

That switched Ethereal and Ephemeral back to their typical selves. They agreed so eagerly that everyone laughed more, and dad told grandpa he could use their bathroom for the makeover. The other twins bounded after him as if Christmas had come early, and I took a seat on the couch  feeling pretty pleased.

     "Not gonna lie, even though you've told us about your friends before, it was still strange hearing mom's name being used again." dad explained when they were out of earshot.
     "It took some getting used to, that's for sure," Blaze joined in agreement, "It's nice though. I think Ethereal would feel honored."

The conversation ceased when Merlot snuck up behind dad and blasted a whiff of air from his gun to the back of his head. The rest of us chuckled and laughed while dad gave him a poor attempt at a disapproving stare because he, too, couldn't contain his smile. Dad did take the toy though and place it under the couch for the time being. Merlot shrugged and sat down next to him.

     "You said we would all go out after we got back home from school," my brother reminded dad of the brief conversations we'd had that morning, "Where are we going to go?"
     "Well, Holly and I spotted a posting for an interesting interactive exhibit at the art museum. Trust me, I don't really like art museums but even I think this sounds fun," dad countered Merlot's frown of disapproval, "Then we were thinking of heading to this outdoor cafe for dinner. Past that, we can make it up as we go along. Maybe we'll look for a Christmas tree."
     "I think that sounds fine." I nodded.

Several more ideas were thrown around. Then Merlot got bored, snatched up his toy air gun, and goaded dad into chasing him around the room while they both laughed like idiots. There was no doubt in my mind dad would soon be looking for a similar item in a store or online so he could properly retaliate in the little war. Things only quieted down when grandpa rounded the corner with Ethereal and Ephemeral.

     "Once again, not gonna lie, that's a little strange," dad remarked, nostalgia hitting his eye as well as our friends stood there with their hair styled, "But, it looks very good. The facial structures are different, of course, yet not a hair's out of place from how mom used to do it."
     "Thank you." Ephemeral spoke to grandpa.
     "You're welcome. I'm glad it came out well. It's been a while since I've done it. You two really did have the perfect length and cut for it to be exact though."
     "I'm going to wear it like this all the time now," Ethereal gushed, "The part of wrapping the hair to make it hold the ponytail still seems really hard though."
     "It can be tricky, yes. I'll help you go over it whenever you come to visit though, if you'd like." grandpa offered.
     "They'll be experts in no time then. These girls and their other companions constantly swarm the house. You think we'd adopted them or something." Blaze teased.
     "So, what are we doing today Mr. Uncle Vivid?" Ephemeral jumped in to tease back, taking a seat by him on the couch as she addressed him with all the titles he hated the most.

Blaze rolled his eyes, ruffled her hair, and began explaining our tentative plans.

Going to the art museum was first on the list. The exhibit proved interesting enough. I don't think I would have wanted to bother if it wasn't interactive, but getting to touch the materials and listen to matching music and that sort of thing kept my interest. We wandered about in different areas afterwards. Gilly and I had made it down to the first floor with our friends, but then Ethereal and Ephemeral suddenly disappeared. It took us several minutes of hurried searching to find them in the corner sitting area.

     "What's up?" Gilly asked.

The two had just gotten off a phone call, and they didn't appear happy.

     "It's just our parents being bothersome." Ephemeral sighed with an eye roll.
     "About what?" I asked, "Do they want you home?"
     "No, quite the opposite, in fact," Ethereal revealed, "They called to check up on us. We mentioned your dad and grandfather, of course, so mom and dad suddenly became very insistent that we get to know them, especially your grandfather, as well as we can. They can't get it through their thick heads that no matter how close we get to your family your uncle still won't want to make a movie about your grandmother."
     "We've even told them we don't want to do a movie about her anymore. Now that we actually know you guys, we couldn't stand to intrude like that." Ephemeral added.
     "Did they get angry at you for refusing?" Gilly asked sympathetically.
     "It just sounded like they think we'll come back around to the idea after a while."
     "They're hopeless." Ethereal shook her head.
     "That's parents for you." I shrugged.

Ethereal and Ephemeral didn't care to stay on the topic. We concluded our viewing of the last pieces of work that seemed vaguely interesting, and then we got bored. A good time was had sitting down on some couches near the entrance and talking about Christmas wishes and plans for the new year. The others eventually made their way over where we slowly offered hints that it was time to go. When it took a bit to come to any sort of unanimous approval, Gilly and I got permission to go outside, get some snacks from a vending machine, and wait by the stairs for the rest of us. However, my sister and I didn't wait exactly where we were supposed to. Gilly bumped into me to knock my snack onto the floor. I took more than I was allowed from her treat even though I only took half, which sounded fair to me, so Gilly's retaliation soon involved me running away from her to escape her playful wrath.

     "You're not going to get away from me, cripsy treat thief!" she called as I rounded the corner.

I couldn't answer. Me and my terrible running skills already set my lungs on fire.

What happened next, well, it was like something out of a book. I barreled blindly around the corner, nearly ran right into someone, and started to fall as I recoiled to avoid impact. I started to fall, and the one who was there caught my wrist to steady me onto my feet. However, the person there wasn't some charming prince, hot classmate, kind hearted bad boy, or whatever stereotype one would encounter in this sort of situation. It was just an old guy. Or so I thought.

     "I'm really sorry, I didn't...oh, Blaze, how did you get..."

My voice trailed off as my mind shut off. I had thought it was just an old guy. Then I thought Blaze had somehow gotten outside before us. Then I understood the man in front of me wasn't my uncle. They looked incredibly similar, but the man had a different haircut. He was also with some woman I'd never seen. His wife, I assumed. My mouth hung slightly open as I forgot to finish my apology.

     "It's 'I'm sorry I was running around like a wild animal and almost knocked you over', Dia." Gilly prompted teasingly as she joined me in front of our sudden companions.
     "I...I'm sorry."

The words were quiet.

     "It's quite alright." the man accepted with a smile.

Then it all got weird for a moment. Gilly naturally noticed how the man before us bore a strong resemblance to Blaze, and the man and his wife shared a look that signaled there was some common understanding between them as well- whatever that was.

     "Who did you think I was?" the man eventually asked after a moment.
     "Our great-great-uncle, Blaze. You two look alike. Almost exactly." I remarked.
     "Well," the woman laughed, directing a strange, amused glance at her husband, "They do say everyone has a twin out there somewhere."
     "Blaze had an actual twin, our great-grandpa. He died a long time ago though. Back when our grandpa was a baby. It was really painful for Blaze. I can't even imagine what that must have been like." Gilly explained sadly.
     "That must have been immensely difficult for him indeed. Are you two twins too?" the man wondered.
     "Yup! I'm the older one." Gilly replied merrily now.
     "As if it makes any difference." I scoffed.
     "I think it does." the man teasingly agreed with my sister.
     "Nu-uh."

My childish comment got everyone, even me, to laugh. Movement heading in our direction got me quieting and looking curiously to the side though. Dad wandered over with intrigue in his eye as well.

     "So much for waiting by the stairs, huh?" he reprimanded without actually caring before properly reaching the corner to see who we conversed with, "Hello."

Then, yet again, another bizarre moment came. The two older folks went to reply, yet their words hesitated. Flashes of recognition appeared on all of their faces. I swore it was recognition. None of them addressed it directly.

     "Found some companions to talk to instead?" dad shifted his focus back to us.
     "Sort of. I was teasing Dia by running after her, and she almost ran into him when she went around the corner." Gilly answered.
     "You know to be more careful than that, the both of you."
     "Yes, dad."

Our acceptance came at the same time.

     "It was no bother for us," the man joined in, "Your girls are quite pleasant to talk to."
     "We were saying how much he looks like Blaze. Don't you think so too?" I asked dad.

What dad thought, I never knew. He hesitated on answering for reasons I didn't understand, and he was interrupted as well.

     "Everything all good over there, Coal?" grandpa called from down the path.

He and Merlot had come outside.

     "Yeah, just a second, dad. We'll be right there."

That's when things got weirder. Both the man and woman visibly tightened up at the end of dad's sentence. They slowly peeked around the corner. The woman held her breath while the man hurriedly returned to being hidden by the wall. Gilly and I frowned in utter confusion, which prompted dad to place a hand on each of our shoulders.

     "It's a little early, but the rest of us decided we'd head to the cafe for dinner. The others should be coming outside too shortly. Go wait with dad and Merlot, and tell everyone I'll be back in a moment." he instructed.
     "But-" Gilly began.

Dad silenced her with a look. We shuffled off unsure of what in the world was going on.

Mom and Ember reached the bottom of the main steps as we reached grandpa and Merlot. I glanced over my shoulder, and dad and the others were gone. Seriously, why were they acting weird?

     "Where did Coal go?" grandpa asked.
     "We met this elderly couple, and I think dad knew them because he went off to talk with them." Gilly said.
     "Yeah?"
     "Yeah, he told us to tell you he'd be along in a moment." I added.
     "That's fine, but do you know who he's talking to?" mom requested.
     "Nope. Not at all. Dia and I didn't think to ask their names." Gilly shrugged.
     "I guess we'll find out when Coal gets back then." mom reasoned.

We wouldn't ever get to find out. The others filed out of the museum soon after. Dad wasn't back. It wasn't a big deal as we didn't mind chatting. Three minutes passed though, and I couldn't help but to grow more curious. If only it wouldn't be super obvious, I would sneak over to where they'd been and try to catch the conversation. Perhaps it was nothing. However, it felt like something to me. There I stood talking to my brother though. Dad finally reappeared after another minute.

     "Coal, what's up?" mom asked when he rushed up with an expression pulling between both serious and ecstatic.
     "I know this is going to be a little weird, no, probably a lot weird, but I need you two to come with me." dad mostly ignored her, grasping both grandpa and Blaze's arms.
     "Why?" Blaze raised a brow at him.
     "You'll find out soon. Just come with me."

He tugged on them like he was a young child dragging his tired parents out of bed on Christmas.

     "How long is this going to take? I'm hungry." Merlot whined.
     "Actually, why don't the rest of you just go ahead and head off to the cafe? We'll catch up." dad suggested.
     "Coal." mom warned, her arms folded.
     "We'll catch up, I promise," he assured her before tugging at grandpa and Blaze again, "C'mon."
     "I guess we'll see you all in a bit." grandpa caved, both amused and exasperated.

I threw out the majority of my ideas for the weirdness after that. My main idea had been that the man and the woman were actually paparazzi that Uncle Prism had told dad about or something, but with the way he eagerly wanted Blaze and grandpa to go talk to them that didn't make sense if he was telling the couple off. It made more sense that dad simply wanted to reveal how the man and Blaze appeared so similar. Maybe the man was actually a distant relative of my uncle. It would explain why they did look alike and why dad abruptly needed them to meet. In any case, and no matter the reason, Gilly and I grew extremely frustrated when halfway through dinner none of them had come back. We hadn't seen dad and grandpa in months, and the afternoon we were supposed to spend together wasn't happening.

Even worse, Gilly and I had presents we'd been working on all these months to give to them when we met again. The presents were special journals, one for each of them. They were normal books in the first half, where we'd written how life had been so dad and grandpa wouldn't be left out on all the new things we'd experienced. The second half of the books had a square cut out in the middle where one could place a small object. Gilly and I had used the rest of our money we'd saved to buy a pair of nice watches where one could insert a picture to be the background under the hands and numbers. Though I had no artistic talent, I'd helped Gilly as much as possible in drawing and coloring a portrait of dad for dad's watch and grandpa for grandpa's watch. We'd also decorated the journal part with representative doodles to match the writing. Both journals had been wrapped and secretly hidden in mom's rental car. The plan had been to give them out during dessert.

     "Coal just texted me saying they're not going to make it to dinner. They're not sure when they'll be back, honestly." mom revealed when dessert was done.
     "What in the world are they doing that's more important than spending time with us again? What about the presents?" I wondered despondently.
     "Don't worry, baby," mom reassured with a determined twinkle in her eye, "Your dad's in big trouble when he gets home, and possibly Amaranth and Blaze too depending on why they ran off."
     "Mm." I mumbled.

Knowing mom was on my side and just as annoyed was nice, but I'd rather have the others around than have solidarity with her. The only thing that made the apparent abandonment better was Ethereal and Ephemeral's grandiose attempts to cheer us up. They refused to let us be down, and so we still had a ton of fun until their parents picked them up at eight-thirty. Showers and bedtime snacks came after that. Dad, grandpa, and Blaze still weren't home. Mom was only getting occasional texts from dad who said little other than that they were doing something important. Gilly and I gave up on offering our presents directly, so we left them with mom to give them to dad and grandpa whenever they did return. Goofing off with Mirage kept us entertained until bed.

     "I can't believe them." I huffed indignantly.
     "I know, right? What's so important about some old people? I'm assuming they're off with those two anyway," Gilly agreed, "But, hey, with how disappointing they made this day that just means we can mooch a lot off of them tomorrow in order for them to earn our forgiveness."
     "Yeah. Maybe we can get them to take us to that restaurant Uncle Prism and Aunt Taffy took us to for dinner on the first day."
     "That sounds good!"

Gilly and I wrote down a whole list of things we wanted and memorized it. We naturally couldn't just demand from the list, but having an idea of what we most desired to get out of dad and grandpa would go a long way towards actually getting them. Excitement finally bubbled in my chest, and it carried over into the morning when a whole different situation woke me up in surprise. Something kept poking my cheek. Thinking in my sleepy daze it was simply Mirage, I swatted the offending 'paw' away. On a second swipe I noticed the paw was actually a finger. Sounds of Gilly sitting up and laughing fluttered my own eyes open. I saw a blob of brown first. Then I saw my friend.

     "Wakey, wakey, Dia." Timber laughed.

I sat up instantly now fully awake. With a beaming smile, I crushed my friend with a hug.

     "Timber! You're already here? I thought you and your dad weren't getting in until tomorrow." I exclaimed.
     "There was an error on the airline's company part. They accidentally sold more tickets for our original flight than there were seats on the plane. An opening came up for seats for a flight early this morning, so when they offered it to us we decided to take it."
     "I'm sorry you had to get up so early, but I'm glad you're here. I've really been missing everyone from back home so bad."
     "Yup, it's good to see you." Gilly joined in, patting his shoulder.
     "You two too. It feels like it's been forever."

Unable to stop myself, I gave him another hug.

     "You getting here early is the best relief. Yesterday afternoon was really frustrating." I sighed.
     "Oh? How so?"
     "Well, dad and grandpa got here yesterday, right? We haven't seen them in so long, so of course we wanted to spend time with them. Then, after we were done at the art museum exhibit, dad took grandpa and Blaze off with him to go do some important stuff with these two random old people Gilly and I met. Dad wouldn't say what the important thing was though. He just kept blowing us off more and more. Gilly and I even had presents that we wanted to surprise them with."
     "I'm sorry. That does sound really frustrating."
     "I wonder if they're even back yet." Gilly wondered dryly.
     "I think so. I at least saw your grandpa when dad and I came in." Timber revealed.
     "Good. Then we can put our plan of guilting stuff out of them into action right away. Want to help, Timber?" I offered.
     "Getting up to hijinks right away? Sounds brilliant to me." Timber agreed with a laugh.