Gen Three- Chapter Twenty Four

Ethereal and Ephemeral, as usual, had seemingly endless amount of energy. They were always the last ones to fall asleep at sleepovers and were typically the first ones to rise as well. Gilly and I had done everything we could to tire them out over the weekend, but even after spending the whole day guiding them around the city the twins walked with a spring in their step while my sister and I struggled to keep up. Ethereal and Ephemeral claimed their pep was due to being raised completely in Tinseltown. With everything constantly moving at a rapid pace there, one had to adapt to not be left behind.

     "Oh, wow! It looks amazing!" Ethereal gushed as we neared our next destination.

     "It's so big for a family owned bookstore too." Ephemeral added.

     "Well, it's now a bookstore and cafe proper. Dad technically owns both parts, but Aunt Mimi really runs the first floor." Gilly explained as we reached dad's business.

The three story building was unlike anything the old bookstore used to be. It wasn't even on the same lot anymore. Flooding had been a constant background threat for the building even before those crazy rainy years, and with most of his hard work being lost thanks to the hurricane dad hadn't hesitated on buying up a better location. The lot near the hospital provided room for expansion as well as heavier traffic for better sales.

Gen Three- Chapter Twenty Three

That Saturday was hardly different than any other. At least at the beginning. Mom drove me to the Twilight North branch campus for me to have my morning classes, which were a pain to attend seeing as how they started at seven in the morning. I was out by eleven though. Normally I would do a bit of indulgent shopping or meandering about in the city before I took a bus or taxi home, but this time I headed straight to the city park. Merlot wanted to play there for a while, and I was to be his babysitter. Mom and dad had been letting him go off on his own now, but the cat killings had them more on edge. After the fourth had been found, things had thankfully somewhat slowed down with that whole situation. The person clearly garnered more attention than he or she wanted. No killings happened, or at least were made public, for two weeks. One popped up again on the third week. A week of silence came before a fifth cat, this time one that wasn't a stray, had been found last night. There were no signs the person was attempting to come after people, but mom and dad naturally didn't want to take any chances they didn't have to. They wanted Merlot to have supervision, so supervision I would provide. Timber, however, had been nice enough to agree to accompany my brother and me. He walked Merlot to the park before keeping me entertained as Merlot ran all over.

     "They're really going all out, aren't they?" Timber laughed.

     "They seriously are," I chuckled back, "Gil and Confetti are even talking with some baker who makes food and treats specifically for animals. The cake those two want to get is being quoted for them at seventy-five dollars."

     "I mean, if this is important to them, I say go for it. I just hope they remember to get food for the non-animals to eat too."

     "I did have to remind them of that fact. Gil looked at me in pure confusion and then when 'oh, yeah' when it sank in."

     "Thank you for making sure we won't starve," Timber patted my back encouragingly, "When will the 'wedding' be?"

     "A few more weeks. The weekend after the dance. It was going to be sooner, but now that Gilly's on the homecoming court she has to divide her attention more."

     "I'm still surprised you turned down your chance to be on court. You were elected because there were that many people writing you in. You could have won easily."

Gen Three- Chapter Twenty One

A smile rotated my lips even as I rolled my eyes. In the middle of a phone call with Ephemeral, I had to applaud the girl's stubbornness.

     "Seriously, Dia, you have to come to August's party! We had so much fun last year, remember?"

     "It was a lot of fun, Ephie, but-"

     "And it's going to be even better now. Because we were so well behaved and respectful of the rules, his parents are going to let it be bigger and full of a bunch of other stuff they didn't allow last time!"

     "I-"

     "Oh, are you talking to Dia?" another familiar voice joined the conversation, "Hi, Dia!"

     "Hi, Ethie." I laughed as I imagined her leaning against her sister to get near the phone.

     "Is Ephie bullying you again into coming to the party?"

     "Of course. She's been doing nothing else for the past few weeks even though I told her it's too much of a bother for me and Gilly."

     "The party does fall on that long weekend though, you know." Ethereal pointed out.

     "And that's the only reason I considered it for a moment. My answer is still no."

     "But you could see us again, and Ember, Flurry, and Acer too!" Ephemeral kept trying.

     "It's barely been a week since we were down there in Tinseltown!" I reminded her in amusement.

Gen Three- Chapter Nineteen

Gilly and I contemplated going up on the balcony to watch some television, but we couldn't bring ourselves to do it. The noise steadily growing from the kitchen would reach us anyway, and it's not like we would pay attention to what would be playing in the first place. Our room filled with an eerie calm as my sister and I listened to the muffled ranting, mostly belonging to dad, while trying to discern the words being said even as we wished the whole thing would stop.

     "At least Merl isn't here," Gilly sighed after a few minutes, "Poor thing can't handle conflict like this."

     "Yeah." I nodded, scratching Mirage as she nuzzled against my arm.

Merlot was at Uncle Prism's house hanging out with Crescent again.

     "What do you think she did?" my sister finally went with that question.

     "I don't know. I'm guessing whatever she was doing before, but I don't understand how she could have been doing it. Not with her being so heavily grounded and with officers watching us."

     "Maybe that's why dad's so mad...because she snuck out while we might be in danger."

     "Could be."

I recalled the pictures and videos taken of dad when he'd been recovering from the weeks those company people had him. He'd looked so battered and bruised. Him being terrified of something like that happening to Ember did fit logically with his rage.

Gen Three- Chapter Eighteen

It took me another minute or two to convince my brain my friend was indeed before me and that my mind wasn't teasing me with a dream. I was, in fact, wide awake, and Timber's surprise arrival prompted such an energy boost that I then hurriedly rushed him out of our room so Gilly and I could change. Then we could get the day started for real.

     "Will you please just admit you might like him a little?" Gilly teased as she came up behind me admiring myself in the mirror.

     "I will not because I do not like him. Not like that," I rolled my eyes, too done with this kind of conversation to be annoyed, "I think I look good today. That's all."
     "Why did you choose today of all days to spend extra time on your hair and stuff then? It's a suspicious coincidence."
     "I don't know. We haven't seen Timber in a while. I don't want him to think I've been lazy or something, I guess."
     "Mmhmm."
     "You're impossible, Gil."
     "So I've heard."

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.

Gen Three- Chapter Sixteen

In the past, I usually rolled my eyes when peopled used the expression that they had 'died and gone to heaven.' The statement almost always came out corny, and I believed the sentiment to be a vast over-exaggeration. Now, however, I had to take back my thoughts. The afternoon when mom revealed we would be moving into the large house Gilly had found and so desperately wanted had been overwhelming with joy enough. Now that we were actually in front of the place about to head inside to claim our temporary house, I seriously couldn't remember the last time in my life I'd been so excited. My head swarmed with a raptured dizziness while my cheeks burned in anticipation as if I'd been standing in the sun all day.

     "Thank you!" Gilly squealed, reaching up to squeeze mom's neck from behind as we drove up.

     "Thank your grandfather," mom replied before laughing and shaking her head, "I should have known Amaranth would be all for this place. Seriously, the second he got the link he told me to take whatever money I needed from his account to be the highest bidder. Even at over sixty, he's still one of the biggest children I've ever met."

     "Damn right." Blaze laughed along with a knowing twinkle in his eye.

Gen Three- Chapter Fifteen

The smile that had been on my lips faded as he laughed.

     "You really don't remember?" Timber wondered.

     "It was kind of a stressful day," I shrugged, "I'm surprised you remember. You didn't look any more focused than I did."

We were recalling the crazy day we'd hoped to meet with Timber's mother. I'd mentioned to my friend that one of my new classmates was in the popular show Glassblown, but that I hadn't ever really seen it. That's when Timber revealed the morning before we left for the lake we'd watched nothing else.

     "I was hyper-focused because I was so stressed." Timber said too confidently.

     "I'm not sure that's something to be proud of." I teased with a laugh.

     "Maybe not," he chuckled, "Anyway, want to get me autograph? It'd be cool to have something signed by a famous person."

     "If you want something written by a famous person, I'll just give you Uncle Prism's shopping list."

     "That sounds even better." Timber went along playfully.

Gen Three- Chapter Fourteen

I expected Zenith Peak to be fancy given that it was a private school in one of the most affluent places in the world, but Zenith Peak went far past fancy. Mom and Aunt Taffy didn't just pull up to a nice building and drop us off. They pulled up to a parking lot in front of an expensive looking road gate where Canary and Crescent had to get out because all typical students took shuttles to their respective buildings. Zenith Peak, apparently, was a series of buildings much like a college campus settled up against the hills. The actual college campus was a bit further down the way. Aunt Taffy drove us up to the gate, some guards double checked the permission she had to drive us new students to the buildings directly, and off we were in this crazy other world. The high school was the closest, so Ember got taken inside first. Then came the elementary, and Merlot was off. The middle school was the farthest away, and Gilly and I hopped out of the car with wide eyes.

     "This feels so..." I began slowly.

     "Excessive?" Gilly finished for me.

     "Yeah."

     "Perhaps a little." Aunt Taffy laughed as she ushered us inside.