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whoisshel · 11 months

Text

Holly, Jolly

pairing: Eddie Munson x Reader

word count: 3225

tw: swearing

You woke up the next morning to an arm draped around your waist and a hand tucked in your hair scratching the back of your head. You laid on Eddie’s chest, slowly opening your eyes you blinked a couple times, trying to get rid of the sleep. The hand that was in front of your face, moved down to his stomach caressing it with your thumb as a way to let him know you were awake.

“How late to school are we?” You asked Eddie knowing he doesn’t set an alarm to wake him up for school.

“Uh,” Eddie lifted his head a little to look at his clock, “Only missed like the first two classes.”

Pushing yourself up to a sitting position, you let out a sigh, “Guess we better get ready, so we don’t miss the rest of the day.” “Hey, no, why don’t we just skip the rest of the day.” Eddie suggested, grabbing at your waist to pull you back down, but you don't budge.

“I can’t skip, I have theater practice.” You said in a slightly stern tone, only making the humorous smirk on Eddie’s face grow bigger.

“That’s right, the lead needs to be perfect.” Eddie joked, leaning up on his arm.

You scoffed, shoving Eddie’s shoulder pushing him back down, but the small smile gave your fake annoyed look away, “I’m not the lead, just one of them.”

“Oh my bad,” Eddie put his hands up feigning surrender, “What musical are you doing again?”

“Guys and Dolls.”

“Isn’t that, that Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando movie?” Eddie asked, sitting back up becoming more interested.

“Don’t forget about Jean Simmons and Viviane Blaine.” You quipped back with an eye roll.

Eddie rolled his eyes right back, but in more of an exaggerated way, “Of course, can’t forget about them, who are you playing again?”

“Adelaide,” You answered, Eddie’s face turned confused, “Viviane Blaine… Frank Sinatra’s love interest.”

“Of course, I knew that.” Eddie said completely lying, “Don’t forget to tell me when, I want to see my girl front and center.”

Eddie brought his other hand that he wasn’t leaning on up to your face to bring you in for a kiss, pulling back just a little bit you replied, “Of course I will.” Now standing up and going over to Eddie’s drawer to pick out clothes for the day, “Come on, don’t want to be later than we already are.”

Eddie only sighed, laying back down on his bed, until a shirt came flying and hit him in the face, “Fine.”

—-----------

Making it to the school in your separate cars, you both walked in together as the bell rang letting the students out of second period. The couple gave each other a kiss and soft goodbyes before going their separate ways to your own lockers.

As you opened your locker, shoving your backpack inside, a loud voice came up next to you, “Dude, did you hear what’s going around the school?”

You turned your head to the side, seeing that it was Robin who asked the question, “No, what?”

“Apparently, Steve Harrington had a party last night and at some point he and Nancy Wheeler went to his room, and you know.” Robin said, in a quieter voice with an amused look at the gossip she heard.

Your face scrunched up in disgust, “Ew, gross.”

“I know right,” Robin replied, still amused, “I guess you were right, she is naive.”

“Yeah, no kidding, who would want to lose their virginity to Steve ‘the hair’ Harrington.”

“I don’t know if you have much room to talk, since you lost yours to Eddie ‘the freak’ Munson.” Robin jokes, not meaning any offense to her friend or her friend’s boyfriend who she liked for You.

“Hey, at least we lost our virginities together.” You laughed along with Robin. “I’m not just one of his many girls.”

Robin was now the one to twist her face up in disgust, “Ugh, now I’m thinking about Steve and the many girls he’s somehow convinced into his bed.”

“Ew, why are you thinking about that, don’t think about that,” You became grossed out again, “Now you’ve got me thinking about it.”

“Let’s just get to class.” Robin said, trying to distract them from Steve’s manwhore ways.

“Oh yeah, what happened in English?” You asked, shutting your locker then turning to walk towards your next class.

—-----------

Walking into the cafeteria, you headed over to where Eddie sat with other Hellfire Club members. Eddie sat at the head of the table, being this year's new Dungeon Master and having superiority over other newer members. Once making it over to the table, you set a hand on Eddie’s shoulder, bringing his attention up to you. You leaned down and gave Eddie a kiss on the cheek, “Hey, how were the two classes you went to?”

“Stupid, all people can talk about are Steve and Nancy today, it’s annoying,” Eddie answered. Putting an arm around your waist to bring you closer, “How were your classes?”

“The same, that’s all I’ve heard about.” You rolled your eyes, about to say more, but was interrupted by the pretend moaning coming from Carol and Tommy who were sitting a couple tables behind them, “Speaking of annoying.”

“Jesus Christ,” Eddie groaned, becoming even more annoyed, “Only two people could be worse, and they’re the loudest people in this school. That’s coming from me.”

You chuckled a little at the last thing he said. Looking away from the table and at the door across from them, you saw Jonathan walk by the door, “Oh, hey, I’ll see you later, I need to talk to Jonathan.”

“Alright, see you later, love you.” Eddie muttered, not realizing what was coming out of his mouth before it was too late. He just hoped you didn’t hear as you were already walking away.

—----------

Running a little to try and catch up to Jonathan, you called out his name, “Jonathan, hey, Jonathan.”

Jonathan turned around hearing his name, then stopped walking, seeing that it was you, “Oh, hey Y/N, what’s up?”

“I just wanted to ask you how it went with Lonnie, if you found anything about Will?” You asked, once you caught up to him.

“It went just about how you’d think it’d go with Lonnie.” Jonathan muttered in annoyance, looking down. “But there wasn’t anything that suggested Will had been there.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry Jonathan.” You said sympathetically, becoming more and more concerned as days passed by without any clue as to where Will is.

“Thanks, but I went into the woods last night and took some pictures to see if there was anything that could lead me to where Will is, and I’m going to go develop them.” Jonathan stammered out quickly, turning slightly in the direction he was headed in.

You grabbed his arm to stop him, “Wait, you went into the woods last night, alone?”

“It’s no big deal-”

“No big deal, there’s someone obviously bad out there, you shouldn’t go out there alone.” You cautioned Jonathan, concerned about his safety.

“It’s fine, Y/N, Really.” Jonathan said, grabbing your arms to try and ease his friend’s anxieties.

“Fine, but next time you call me.” You demanded, giving Jonathan a stern look.

Jonathan only smiled seeing how much you cared about him, “I will, I promise.”

“Okay, good, now go develop those pictures.” You said, keeping up the bossy behavior.

“Yes, ma’am.” Jonathan laughed, turning around and walking away.

You stayed standing in that spot watching Jonathan continue walking. You let out a big sigh, still worried for your friend and his little brother.

—-----------

After school, you walked out to the school’s parking lot and towards your car. Once you make it to the car and are standing in front of the driver’s side door, you look up and see Steve and his group blocking Jonathan’s way to his car. Knowing where this might lead, you make your way over to Jonathan.

“-You know, as… connoisseurs of art.” You catch the last bit of what Steve was saying, once you made it to Jonathan’s side.

“What are you doing, Steve?” You ask Steve, crossing your arms across your chest.

“Jonathan here was just about to show us the pictures he took.” Steve said, turning his head to look towards you then looked back at Jonathan.

Jonathan sighs, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Jonathan pushed past the crowd to walk towards his car, but before he could make it too far Tommy took Jonathan's bag off his shoulder.

“Hey,” Jonathan yelled, walking towards Tommy to try and get his bag back. “Please just give me my bag.”

You took a step towards Tommy reaching for the bag. Before either of them could get close enough, Tommy tossed the bag to Steve. “Man, he is totally trembling. He must really have something to hide.” Steve said once the bag was in his hands.

“Steve, don't.” You warned him, but he didn’t listen. Instead Steve turned and set the bag on Jonathan’s car, opening and taking the pictures out.

Steve turned back around, leaning on the car, looking through the pictures, “Ah… here we go.” As he looked through the pictures he muttered, “Ah, man.”

“Let me see.” Tommy said, taking a picture to look at for himself, then looked up at Jonathan, “Dude.”

Carol walked over taking the pictures to see what they were looking at, “Yeah, this isn’t creepy at all.”

“I was looking for my brother.” Jonathan muttered, not able to explain himself further as Steve started talking again.

“No, this is called stalking.”

“Steve, just leave him alone.” You tried to reason with him. You haven't seen the pictures yourself, but you wouldn’t let Steve and his asshole friends pick on Jonathan.

“What’s going on?” Nancy asked as she walked up to them.

“Here’s the starring lady.” Tommy teased.

“What?” Nancy asked, completely confused about the whole situation.

“This creep was spying on us last night.” Carol answered, taking a picture out of the pile and handing it to Nancy. “He was probably gonna save this one for later.”

Nancy took the picture and looked at it in shock, not knowing what to say about it. Steve had a lot to say about it though, “See, you can tell that he knows it was wrong, but that’s the thing about perverts… it’s hardwired into them, you know, they just can’t help themselves.” Steve ripped the pictures that were still in his hands, then turned around to walk back towards the car, “So, we’ll just have to take away his toy.”

“No, please not the camera.” Jonathan begged, when Steve pulled the camera out of Jonathan’s bag.

“No, no, wait, wait, Tommy, Tommy,” Steve stuttered out quickly, making Tommy back off, “It’s okay, here you go, man.”

Steve held the camera out for Jonathan to grab, and as Jonathan was about to go for it, Steve let it drop to the ground. The camera smashed on the ground and everyone looked at it in shock, except for Steve who didn’t care.

“What the hell, Steve!” You yelled angrily, “So much for that apology.”

Steve just looked at you for a moment with a blank stare, then turned to walk away, “Come on, man, the games about to start.”

The rest of them walked away with Steve, leaving Jonathan, you, and Nancy to stand there. As soon as they left Jonathan dropped to the ground to look at the pieces of his camera. You soon followed, to try and help pick up the ripped pictures scattering the ground, finally seeing what the pictures of. You didn’t think it was right, but neither was breaking his camera.

Nancy stood there for a moment, until one of the pictures caught her eye. She bent down to get a better look at it. You looked over at Nancy seeing her just stare at the picture for a while.

“Hey, Nance!” Steve yelled across the parking lot, “Come on.”

Nancy scrambled to pick up pieces of the pictures while staring at Jonathan who just stared back looking guilty for what he did. Picking up the pieces, Nancy stood back up and ran back over to Steve leaving Jonathan to look down at his smashed camera. You watched the interaction between the two, then glared over to where Steve stood becoming overwhelmed with anger.

You finished helping Jonathan pick up everything off the ground and muttered a goodbye to him. Derminiation written all over your face, you started speed walking towards the school where you knew Steve would be waiting. Your fists were clenched and jaw set, you were ready to fight.

Pushing the double doors wide open, you set your eyes on Steve who was sitting with his back against the lockers, “Steve! What the fuck is your problem?”

Tommy started towards you ready to tell you off, but Steve stood up and tugged his shoulder back, “It’s all good, I’ll deal with her.”

“You’re going to deal with me?” You quipped, your eyebrows raising, “Like you did with Jonathan?”

Steve walked close over to you, getting close enough so only you could hear what he said, “He deserved that, did you see those pictures?”

“He didn’t deserve you breaking his fucking camera.” You snapped, only getting angrier.

“Aren’t you the one who told me I never did anything,” Steve asked stepping closer, “I finally did something.”

Your eyes started to water as you stared up at Steve in complete disbelief, “You’re an asshole.”

“Yeah, is that what you think?” Steve stared straight into your eyes trying to keep a blank face as he sees the tears begin to form

“Yeah that’s what I think.” You growled, quickly turning around to leave not wanting to be near Steve any longer.

Once you left, the group went back to how they were and back to talk about whatever stupid things they were talking about. As she was standing there, Nancy couldn’t help but zone the conversation out and let her mind wander. Nancy thought about you and everything you just said to Steve, then to Jonathan and the pictures he took. Nancy thought deeply about the picture of Barb sitting by Steve’s pool.

Having enough of not knowing, Nancy decided to walk away from the three other people she was with to go and find some answers.

“Whoa, Nance, where you going?” Steve asked, confused as to why she just started walking away without saying anything.

“I totally forgot,” Nancy stuttered out an excuse, “I told my mom I would, um, I would do something with her.”

“Well, what do you mean?” Steve questioned, standing up to follow after her, “The games about to start.”

“I’m sorry.” Nancy replied over her shoulder as she continued walking away.

Nancy made it to the parking lot and over to the car she was hopeful would still be there. Nancy softly knocked on the window of the driver’s side door then stepped back to be able to look in the car.

You quickly wiped your eyes before looking out your window to see who knocked on it. When you saw it was Nancy Wheeler, you became even more confused. You rolled down the window, leaned one arm against the door and asked, “What do you want?”

“Um, I wanted to know if Jonathan was okay?” Nancy stammered, kind of shocked by your anger.

“Why don’t you ask him yourself.” You replied, leaning back to roll the window back up.

“Wait, wait.” Nancy quickly said, you paused looking back up at her. “Have you seen Barb today?”

“Barb?” You were confused by the random question. “I only ever usually see her with you.”

Starting to tear up, Nancy sputtered out, “I just, I haven’t seen her today and her mom said she didn’t come home last night… I just don’t know what to do.”

“You think Barb is missing too?” You asked, becoming worried. Nancy only nodded a yes to the question not wanting to actually say that her best friend might be missing. “When was the last time you saw her?”

“At Steve’s, she was going to head home, but her mom said she didn’t show up.” Nancy answered, kind of happy that someone’s finally listening to her.

“Alright, let’s start there.”

“What, really?” Nancy said, surprised that not only are you listening, but also going to help find Barb.

“Yes, now get in.”

—-----------

You parked behind Barb’s car once they made it down the street from Steve's house. The two of you got out of the car and walked over to Barb’s to check it out. Neither of you saw anything suspicious in the car, so both of you stood up straight to look around the area.

“Barb?” Nancy shouted, “Barb!”

“Why would she leave her car?” You asked

“She wouldn’t.” Nancy answered, both of you started to walk towards the woods.

“Right, so, either she got spooked and the only choice was to run or someone took her.” You stated bluntly, causing Nancy to turn and look at you concerned. “And maybe whoever took her also took Will.”

Nancy and you walked through the gate into Steve’s backyard standing in front of the pool.

“Barb?” Nancy called out into the backyard, but received no reply.

After a couple seconds, rustling came from the woods to the left of you. The two stared where the noise came from, then glanced at each other for a quick moment before turning back to look at the woods and walking towards it.

“Barb?” Nancy called out once again as you walked into the woods. The rustling noise happened once again from behind you. Turning to look behind you, Nancy yelled, “Barb?”

As you both looked for what could’ve caused the rustling something ran behind you. Quickly turning around, the two girls caught a glimpse of what it was which sent them running. Taking a couple steps, Nancy tripped and fell to the ground, you quickly helped her back to her feet and started to run again.

Making it to your car, you rushed in and slammed the door shut. You locked the car as soon as the doors were closed, staring straight ahead in shock and fear, “Did you see-”

“Yeah.” Nancy answered

“Okay.” You turned the car on and did a u-turn driving over the speed limit to get away from there as fast as possible.

—------------

You parked in Nancy’s driveway and sat in the car still scared at what you saw, but still wanting to know what’s happening, “We’re going to find Barb and find Will,” You started, turning to face Nancy, “And we’re going to figure out whatever the hell that was, okay?”

Nancy nodded as her eyes started watering, but keeping eye contact with you, “Okay.”

“Now go home and get some sleep, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Okay, bye.” Nancy muttered, not able to say anything else. She got out of the car and headed towards her house.

You stayed in your car, not wanting to go inside your house and be alone. Even if your parents were home, you’d still be alone. Turning the car back on, you put the car in reverse and started driving towards the one person you could always count on, Eddie.

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pocket-lad · 2 months

Text

CH 9- Nick Van Owen

“Oh,” Ian said. “That’s fine.” He thought about how deep and how fast the stream must look from Adelaide’s perspective, especially if she couldn’t swim.

“So, we can just go… I guess,” Adelaide said.

Ian didn’t move from his seat. “Have you ever tried?”

Adelaide looked up at him, confused and a little annoyed. “In what circumstance do you think I’d have the chance to swim? I haven’t found the lake in your walls yet.”

“Ha, point…point taken,” Ian admitted. Sitting next to her like this, Adelaide couldn’t even pretend they were on the same wavelength. They sat the exact same way, side-by-side, but he rose up taller than any building. She forced herself not to back away.

“You want to learn?” Ian asked.

“Not really.”

Ian laughed. “I can just hold you, then.”

Adelaide looked up, searching for his eyes, but they were simply too high. Ian didn’t realize how absurd that suggestion actually was, but it was either that or stay filthy.

“Okay,” she said quietly. Adelaide slowly peeled her jacket off her body, removed her bag from her shoulders, and took her knife off her belt, setting them all in a small pile away from the edge of the stream and stalling for as long as possible.

Ian lowered his hand for her to hop on. She did without hesitation, but that wasn’t the hard part. The hard part happened when his hand lowered toward the surface of the stream.

“Waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait,” Adelaide yelled. She could hear the rushing water and felt cold flecks of it spring up onto her skin.

Ian paused, awaiting further instructions. When none came, he said matter-of-factly, “I won’t let you drown.”

“Yeah, but what if a fish tries to eat me?” Adelaide laughed, but behind the joke there was truth. She took a few deep breaths. “...I trust you….On the count of three?”

This was stupid. This was so stupid. She could live with mud. But before she could second guess herself, Ian was counting.

“One…two-” The cold water splashed against her body, forcing her backward against Ian’s hand. The shock was the worst of it, going from mildly warm air to freezing water. The movement of the water was off-putting as well. She knew if Ian wasn’t there, she’d get swept away in the current, never to be seen again.

Adelaide sputtered and splashed, trying to gain her bearings. When she finally stood up, she realized the water was really only up to her waist. She could do this.

She scrubbed at her face and arms as fast and as best she could, washing away the ground in dirt until she couldn’t see it or feel it anymore. She also tried her best to ignore Ian hovering over her. Knowing they were on a time crunch, she called it when she felt mildly clean.

Ian lifted her out of the water and set her shivering form on the ground next to her stuff.

“I distinctly recall saying on the count of THREE!”

“It wasn’t so bad!”

“It was actually weird and horrible and freezing, thanks. But also… thanks.”

“Of course. Probably one of - one of the weirder things I’ve…done,” he said.

“Alright, don’t look!” Adelaide said as she opened her bag to pull out her spare clothes.

“Okay,” Ian laughed, turning away.

Adelaide did feel a little nervous with Ian’s back turned, but knew she was being completely irrational, so she hurried up and changed into her new clothes. She was still pretty wet and her hair dripped down her back, but the dry clothes helped immensely. She couldn’t say she felt completely clean, but she felt a lot better. “Okay,” she said, calling Ian’s attention.

“Excellent,” he said. Before he hopped to his feet, he cupped some water in his palms and splashed his face. Water sprayed everywhere.

“Watch it!” Adelaide yelled.

“Ah…whoops,” Ian said, but he was obviously amused. He wiped his hands off on his clothes and held one out. When she stepped on, he cupped his hands around her and blew hot breath onto her body, hoping that would suffice as an apology.

Adelaide recoiled. "Ew, stop! Gross!" she exclaimed. Ian's breath smelled like a dying animal and the invasion of her personal space was too much. No matter how much she trusted him, she couldn't stand to be anywhere near a giant's open mouth. Even if the warm air felt kind of nice.

"Suit yourself," Ian shrugged. As he stood up, he set her on his shoulder and they heard Roland call off the break. Just in time. “We are gonna teach you to swim when we get back home, though.”

“We’ll see,” Adelaide muttered. She never had any reason to learn and shouldn’t ever have any reason to learn, but here they were.

They rejoined the group, and instantly Kelly asked to be carried. She looked exhausted, and Adelaide couldn’t blame the poor girl. Not only was Kelly facing threats no adult should face and was probably scared out of her mind, but the humidity and uneven terrain made for a very difficult walk. How was a child supposed to prepare for or deal with any of this?

“I can’t, sweetheart, I’ve got Adelaide,” Ian said.

Oh.

Adelaide felt very guilty all of the sudden. She knew Ian was struggling with their relationship and she didn’t want to be another wedge splitting them further apart. Also, she didn’t want Kelly to resent her (for multiple reasons). Also also, she certainly didn’t want to be a burden to Ian.

Without thinking much about it, Adelaide offered to ride with someone else. “No, it’s fine. I’ll, um, I’ll go with…um…” She was hoping Sarah was nearby. If she could trust anyone else here, it would be her. But with Sarah nowhere to be seen, she went with the only other option in the vicinity. “...Nick!”

Upon hearing his name, Nick turned in their direction, oblivious to the conversation.

“Della, she’ll survive. She has two completely functional feet. She can walk,” Ian said, but the sentence was pointed at Kelly.

“Seriously, I’ll be fine,” Adelaide said in a voice that did not sound fine. In fact, it sounded scared. “Nick, is it okay if I stay with you for a little bit?”

Nick looked dumbfounded. “Um…sure.” He hesitated then reached for Adelaide on Ian’s shoulder.

Adelaide yelped and Ian stepped backward with his hands up. Nick stood there, confused as to what exactly was happening.

“Okay,” Adelaide breathed, shaking. “So, uh, first of all. No grabbing. That’s - that’s not, uh…” She couldn’t finish the sentence, too frazzled. In the blink of an eye, Nick's hand could've yanked her off her perch and carried her off to God knew where. It was a stark reminder to always keep her guard up around Beans. Even 'friendly' ones. It also didn't help that she was still shivering from her time in the stream, unable to retain enough body heat while she was still wet.

“Here,” Ian said, and he held his hand out for Adelaide.

Adelaide began to regret this decision, especially after Nick reached for her. She obviously couldn’t back down, but she proceeded with much more caution, intently watching each of his fingers for any sign of movement. Not that she'd have much time to react. Clearly.

“I don’t bite,” Nick joked.

Adelaide knew he was joking since Eddie made that exact same joke earlier, but he didn’t know how real of a concern it was for her. She forced a nervous laugh. Why did Beans find that so funny?

Slowly, she shuffled onto Nick’s hand. Adelaide reminded herself she’d already been there before, back in the collapsing trailer, so she should be completely fine. Granted, he was holding her captive in a massive fist at the time, but he definitely didn’t hurt her.

“Do not go far,” Ian warned Nick with a pointed finger, then turned to pick up Kelly.

“I’ll. Be. Fine , Ian. I can already see you stressing out,” Adelaide assured him. She paused, then added, “Go talk to her.”

Ian gave her an imperceptible nod, grateful for the chance to talk (semi) privately with his daughter. But before he walked a couple paces ahead, he also made sure to give Adelaide a look that said, behave.

Adelaide rolled her eyes from down in Nick’s hand as she watched him walk away. The sudden realization that she was completely alone with Nick hit her like a truck, and nerves began to worm their way through her spine again. Realistically, Ian was well within earshot, but a million things could go wrong at any moment, and her mind conjured up all of them at once.

Adelaide looked straight up at the underside of Nick’s chin. She gulped, but was able to choke out a repeat of Ian’s request. “Please don’t go far.”

Nick knowingly smirked. “You got it.”

Trying to counteract her pathetic admission of nerves, Adelaide pushed off of Nick’s hand and immediately got to climbing up his olive green T-shirt.

Nick froze in his tracks, eyes wide and tracking her progress, arms hovering uselessly in mid-air.

Once Adelaide reached his shoulder, she gave a little smirk of her own. Giants freaked out when she did that, and though she wasn’t sure why, it made her feel powerful and mischievous. Good. Let them freeze.

Nick shook his head to clear the feeling of tiny people crawling up his body (causing Adelaide to give a quick, annoyed shout.) He expected Adelaide to say something, considering she asked to ride with him. When she didn’t, he was content to walk in amicable silence.

It was true that Adelaide had nothing to say; she didn’t even know where to start, so she just kept her mouth shut. Another reason was that she was focused on working out Nick’s walking pattern. It was still casual, but not as casual as Ian’s. They were similar heights, too, but the gate was just off enough to require concentration.

Eventually, Adelaide got the hang of it (mostly), and that also happened to be the moment Nick reached his maximum threshold of boredom.

“So…how’d you end up here?” he offhandedly asked.

Adelaide jumped, used to the pleasant silence. His voice was much louder than Ian’s. “Like here here, or…?” she clarified.

“Well, looks like we’ve got a lot of time, so,” He gestured vaguely to the space around him, giving Adelaide the floor. She assumed this meant he wanted the full story, which put her fight or flight instincts on high alert. Her first instinct was to tell him off, to let him know it was none of his business, but she had to remind herself that he was just curious. He was just trying to fill the time. So, Adelaide took a deep breath and tried to tell the most bare bones story possible.

“Uhh…I mean, I guess I lived in another state when I was little. Then I got kidnapped and shipped to Texas. I found Ian’s house, I lived there on my own for eight years, then Ian kidnapped me, but then we became friends, I guess, then he dragged me to Jurassic Park the First, and then he tried to get me to stay home from Jurassic Park the Second, but I said if he goes, I go, so. That’s how I got here. You?”

“Woah, woah,” Nick said, gesturing for her to slow down. “You can’t just drop something like that, like it’s nothing, then ask about my boring-ass life.”

“I’d hardly call it boring,” Adelaide interjected, thinking about all the cool shit she’d seen from him so far, and something told her that was just the surface. Whether Nick heard her or not, he kept talking.

“You were kidnapped?” The tone of the question was much more casual than Adelaide expected, as if he were asking how her day was.

Still, Adelaide’s defenses rose. She didn’t know his intentions with this information. “Twice. Why?” Her demeanor grew spikier by the second.

“Just making conversation, s’all,” he shrugged, sending Adelaide into his neck. She pushed off it, body rigid and alert. Then his words sank in. She relaxed a little. She was being ridiculous.

“No, right, sorry, um… just a little protective of information regarding my… kind, y’know?” she admitted.

“Understandable. I wouldn’t tell us either. Especially if-” he indicated the kidnapping.

“Yeah, um, the guy knew about us or specialized in us or whatever. He took us to sell as pets.” Adelaide made sure to emphasize the pause after that part, hopefully making Nick realize why his ‘pet’ comment offended her so much. She couldn’t bear to mention the part about her parents, so she didn’t. “I escaped somewhere en route and went to the nearest human house I could find. Blah, blah, blah, eight years. One day I get stupid or lazy or whatever and drop my guard, so Ian finds me and holds me hostage till I tell him information about myself.”

“And you still trust that guy?” Nick blurted.

Adelaide gazed up ahead at Ian, who was laughing with Kelly, while she thought about her answer. “Yeah, I mean, he let me go. And also he’s done a lot of things to build up that trust over time. Wouldn’t you do the same, if Ian weren’t here with me? If you found me on your own? Beans don’t react logically to people like me.”

“Hmm,” Nick hummed. “You know, if you allied yourself with the right people, we could take down guys like him and whatever organizations they’re working for.”

“And reveal our existence to the whole world? No thanks.” Ever since meeting Ian, Adelaide considered options like that, but at the end of the day, the risks far outweighed the benefits. And if, by some miracle, borrowers were able to rally public support, that still didn’t stop the government from doing what they wanted to do.

The silence dragged out for a while until Adelaide remembered to be polite. “And what about you? How’d you get here?” she asked.

“Money,” Nick said, but then elaborated. He talked about his background in photography and documentary filmmaking, how he traveled to the craziest places for odd jobs. It really did all come down to money in the end, but there were added benefits - women, awards, saving the Earth. He explained his affiliation with Greenpeace, which was some kind of organization working toward a ‘greener Earth’.

Adelaide listened in awe. She knew her scope of the world was much smaller than humans, but it never ceased to amaze her just how vast it really was. This was a completely different reality than she, and even Ian, experienced.

Their conversation was interrupted by Roland calling for another break. That seemed odd, considering they took one not too long ago, but nobody was complaining.

Nick plopped down on a log and Adelaide clung on for dear life. She started to ask a question, but Nick shushed her. She was going to protest until she realized they were eavesdropping.

“Come with me,” Roland said to some guy. “And you. If he’s alive, we’ll find him. The rest of you keep right on. Ten minutes, you’ll reach the ridge. Wait for us there.”

“Ten minutes, you’ll reach the ridge. Wait for us there,” Adelaide repeated in a bad imitation of Roland’s accent. She and Nick laughed, unable to help themselves. “Why is this guy in charge?”

“He is in charge because he’s an expert in his field - tracking, navigating, and hunting large predators,” Roland said, turning to face them. The smiles dropped from their faces as he approached, gun resting on his shoulder. “If you would like to lead the rest of this expedition, Miss Adelaide, then be my guest.” He stared down at her, waiting for an answer. Adelaide shot to her feet, eyeing the gun. It was maybe three feet long and looked heavy, and despite the fact that the most dangerous thing in her immediate vicinity was a Bean, the gun scared her infinitely more. They were deafeningly loud, and Adelaide knew that if she were to get shot with one, there wouldn’t be a trace of her left.

“Why don’t you pick on someone your own size,” Nick said, trying to keep antagonization to a minimum but having trouble.

“I have. Many times. And then it got boring.”

Nick changed the subject. “Who’re you looking for, anyway?”

“Dieter Stark. Disappeared maybe fifteen minutes ago.”

“Good,” Adelaide blurted, drawing all eyes to her. (Or at least, Nick tried to look at her, but she was too close to his neck for him to see properly.) She shifted uncomfortably but held her ground.

“I know you may have had your differences, but no man deserves to die here-”

“Yeah, like Eddie,” Adelaide goaded. She didn’t know why she kept bringing the man up. It wasn’t like she was close to him, but the fact that he saved their lives without a second thought deserved respect. But in the end, it wasn’t about him. It was about making a point, making the InGen team feel bad. Adelaide felt a little guilty using his name for her prideful cause.

“-He is one of my men. He will not be left behind,” Roland finished without blinking.

“Easy for you to say. He didn’t dangle you by your leg.” Adelaide could feel herself digging a deeper and deeper hole. Her brain begged her to stop, but her mouth didn’t seem to care.

Roland crouched down quickly, putting himself closer to eye level. Adelaide jumped, then shifted closer to Nick’s neck, which at least provided the appearance of protection. Roland noticed this but chose not to say anything.

“Get out of my space,” Nick said, and Adelaide could feel him tense up.

Roland ignored him. “You’d be happy to know, Miss Adelaide, that Deiter’s most likely dead. I will give him the courtesy of searching, but I highly suspect he’s gotten himself into more trouble than he could handle.”

With that, Roland stood up and took off. Adelaide let out a deep, long, sigh and wiped the sweat from her forehead. That man was intense.

“You like picking fights or something?” Nick asked.

“Do you?” Adelaide shot back.

“As a matter of fact, I do. You just gotta be able to finish what you start.” Nick stood up, leaving Adelaide with those thoughts. He called out to everyone to keep going, and the group obliged.

What made Adelaide the angriest was that Nick was right. She couldn’t act nervous and scared if she was going to antagonize Beans, and she couldn’t antagonize Beans if she was going to act nervous and scared. It was just so hard to keep her mouth shut sometimes. And on the other hand, Beans had no right to use their height advantage to purposely intimidate her just because she felt like there was something worth standing up for. At least, that’s how she justified it.

Movement caught Adelaide’s eye, and she saw Ian struggle to stand up. His leg must really be killing him, but she knew he would never admit it. She should probably go free him from carrying Kelly.

“Can you take me back to Ian?” she asked.

Nick also saw this and understood. “Yeah, sure thing.”

Ian was just about to lift Kelly up when he saw Nick approach. His heart pounded and his head immediately jumped to everything that could be wrong. When he saw Adelaide sitting calmly on Nick’s shoulders though, he relaxed.

“She’s sick of me already,” Nick said with a smile on his face, and before he could grab Adelaide, Ian’s hands were already there. Nick flinched, mildly uncomfortable with the invasion of his personal space, but Adelaide quickly hopped on Ian’s hands as he pulled them out of the picture.

He put her on his shoulder and nodded a ‘thank you’ at Nick, who returned the nod.

“You know I have to ask. Is everything-” Ian began.

“Yes, everything is okay. He didn’t hurt me, he didn’t call me any names. We had a lovely conversation,” Adelaide rattled off.

“Good.”

They walked silently for a moment as the sun slowly set.

“How’s your leg?” Adelaide asked. She figured she’d given it enough time so that her request to go back to Ian and her worry over his leg wouldn’t be connected. She was wrong. Ian saw right through her.

“Is that why you came back? Because you saw me, um…?”

“No!” Adelaide said a little too quickly. “No, um, Nick is um… I actually hate him now. He hurt me and called me names and we had a terrible conversation.”

“Mhm,” Ian said.

Adelaide changed the subject, but it still wasn’t a comfortable one. “How did it go? With Kelly, I mean?”

At this point, Kelly had already run off to talk to Sarah, so they didn’t have to worry about her hearing the conversation.

“It, uh…it went good. We had a talk, and it was - it was good.”

“Riveting,” Adelaide said sarcastically. Ian just laughed.

They walked on, and Adelaide told Ian about Nick and his adventures and how cool she thought he was. Ian listened patiently, but he knew people like Nick. He kept his opinions to himself, whether good or bad, not wanting to taint Adelaide’s opinions on the world.

It didn’t skip their attention that Roland and his men returned sans Dieter Stark, and after a little more walking, they decided to call it for the night and make camp.

Right. Camp. Sleeping. Sleeping in front of Beans. Falling into a state of unconsciousness with hostile Beans everywhere. It was in that moment that Adelaide decided she wasn’t going to sleep that night.

#jurassic park #ian malcolm #g/t #giant/tiny #jurassic park g/t #gt #size difference #nick van owen

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xx-k1tsun3-k1d-xx · 2 years

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☆RAWRRR ITS TEH SERVER!! ☆

★☆Features☆★

★☆Currently in its third FOURTH year of being home to teh coolest sceniez in town☆★

★Music partiez!!!

☆Events/streams (coming soon! :3)

★Level 2 boosted

☆The most normal emojis and stickers ever

★all ages welcome! though adult/minor roles are compulsory foar safety :)

☆Kandi exchanges!

★Channels for absoloutely fuckin everything xD

☆The void?? pilk??

★All types of scemo discussion and honestly off topic discussion aswell we're LOLRAND0M XDDD

☆PluralKit/Tupper + system friendly! <3

★A genuinely friendly and welcoming space for people to just hang out and be sc3n3

☆The Gayest Server On Teh Interwebz!™

☆★REVIEWS★☆

'These are def normal humans and not acctually just like piles of raccoons in scene outfits tho i do have my suspicions' - Server Member, 22 'if you ever want to witness an entire server spam "ham" at a picture of a ferret then you have come to the right place XD' - @xx-j4c0-j4wbr34k3r-xx 'wabooga!!' - Modmin, 17 'Fucking cringe ew' - Banned Discord User, 18 “I’m a smart, friendly, successful guy from Australia. I have a fantastic life, and I’d love to have someone come and share it with me. I haven’t had a partner before, and I’d like to find a very bright young lady in the same position as me. Is this someone you know? Yes, this ad is entirely genuine. Come in and see.” -A Totally Existing And Real Single Man From Adelaide, 41 'the pins on all the channels are full of relevant and useful information!!' - Modmin Team 'Meow!' - Lily (Cat)

#scene #scene kid #emo #scenecore #emocore #myspace #scenemo #scene revival #scene aesthetic #scemo #scene queen #WHO IS BIG RICHARD??????????????

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elxctrics · 7 months

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open starter for : anyone !!

location : your muses car

she was used to being chauffeured everywhere. used to having the perks of royal security at her beck and call all of the time. but after a year of being cut off from the crown, and because adelaide's parents terrible attempt at humbling her, she found herself standing in the middle of rodeo drive with roughly fifteen shopping bags surrounding her as she waited for her uber. when she checked the app, it said a black car was arriving for her, so when a black car pulled up she simply stood for a moment, waiting for the person to come out and help her with her bags, but when they never did, her lips formed into a pout as she stomped her foot like a toddler, opening the door of their backseat as she began to shove the bags in there. once she was done, she moved into the passenger seat, slamming the door shut as she plopped into the seat, letting out a loud huff. "aren't you like...supposed to be the one doing that, i'm taking away a star from your rating, four stars." she said with a roll of her eyes, pulling down the mirror as she grabbed a tube of lip gloss from her purse and began to reapply it. "ew, and it smells in here. three stars. you can start driving now. i don't have all day."

#hillzstart

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scilou-mdr · 3 months

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They speak the ✨Language of Moliére✨

If you have a good memory, this is a redraw (I just added Delaine)

Translations:

Hellucard: "You think? I don't think so"

Laurel: "Thank you so much!"

Robby: "The world is so boring"

Adelaide: "Why is he looking at me like that?"

Katey: "I am really sorry!"

Delaine: “Me again seriously”

#mod Scilou art #Eddsworld #Eddsworld fanart #ew background character #ew Hellucard #ew Laurel #ew Katey #Katey is her canonical name!! Do not forget!!#fan name tags ➡#ew Robby #ew Adelaide #ew Delaine

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ryanstillwrites-if · 1 year

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I don’t know why, but I just had the idea of MC telling Adelaide, “You know, sometimes you make yourself really hard to love,” as like an accidental argument thing, except it’s also the first time MC has said they love Adelaide.

I don’t know why my brain came up with this.

that's probably because this is definitely something she's been told before and more than once.

if she's feeling really hurt during the argument, she would probably lash out, responding with something like "then why are you still trying?"

if the argument isn't that serious, her reply wouldn't be that serious either, like "oh my god, ew; we love each other."

#bottom line #adelaide truly is hard to love at times #but that doesn't mean she's unworthy of love #ro: adelaide scholz #more than me #more questions more answers #raptorofwar

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tacosaysroar · 2 years

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Ugh. I failed at laundry planning, the results of which will be a) having to get up early (ew) to transfer things to the dryer and b) Adelaide having to either wear a too-small school sweater or none at all.*

Terrible mothering. Feel free to boo me off this platform.

*In defense of B, if you wad the only school sweater that fits you into a ball and leave it in a random bag, far away from any of the hampers, the odds of it being clean when you need it are pretty slim.

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macybeckham7 · 1 year

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Jules mentioning that Adelaide had a childhood crush on his dad and he is like us being together actually makes sense and she’s just like ew

A video had resurfaced of a little Adelaide and how she hurried over to Charles, he was happy to see the little Ricciardo and picked her up and they hugged. She giving a big kiss on his cheek with his girlfriend at the time joking about the little one having a crush. Jules saw it and sent it over to his friends. ‘Does this mean you have a crush on me?’ he smirks. ‘We’ she says pretending to puke. ‘Oh come on the Leclerc gene is strong’ he says as everyone says that that the two of them look so alike. ‘I surprised you wouldn’t be all over me’ he smirks. Adelaide pushing her hat over her face as she groans for him to stop talking.

#charles leclerc imagines #charles leclerc #daniel ricciardo imagines #daniel ricciardo

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deni-plumbob · 1 year

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1351 - Anabel and Isemay took two dogs in and when Isemay moved out, she keeps Ewe.

Anabel married Thomas Scothern and takes care of the second puppy, Ema.

Phillipus aged into a teen. Adelaide gave birth to twins but only one survived. She also lost her son Benet.

Episode 60 from the Ultimate Decades Challenge on youtube:

youtube

#sims 4 #the sims 4 #ts4 gameplay #ultimate decades challenge #decades challenge #ts4 historical #sims 4 decades challenge #sims 4 ultimate decades challenge #ts4 decades challenge #ts4 ultimate decades challenge #Youtube #sims 4 historical #sims 4 legacy #sims 4 medieval

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lan-wangjis-autism · 2 years

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The way people talk about Madame Adelaide is literally so uncomfortable "Stuck in etiquette and her celibacy"??? Please shut up please please thats SO uncomfy ew ew

They all keep calling her "An old crone in a corset" and its ?????? So gross???? Yall do realize this was an actual woman right???? Like please stop talking about her like that

And they keep calling her detestable for "manipulating" Marie Antoinette against Madame du Barry?

#I don't really think what she did could be called exactly 'manipulating'? Idk #But either way the way people talk about her makes me really really uncomfy and its not just because I'm an Adelaide stannie

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suprntrals · 23 days

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I still need to update Claudia and Lexie's biographies, so they are in the same style as my other bios but they're both ready for interactions. I also need to finish Zack's biography.

Over time, I also plan to add the following characters to my muse list. Plus some unfinished ocs that aren't mentioned.

Briarlight. - Warrior Cats.

Elle Woods. - Legally Blonde.

Imogen Adams. - Pretty Little Liars : Original Sin - tempted to make her Supernatural Tv Show Based.

Haruhi Fujioka. - Ouran High School Host Club.

Tara "Terra" Markov. - Teen Titans / Titans.

Willow Rosenberg. - Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

Katherine Vaughn. - Supernatural Oc and the biological daughter of Castiel. She was adopted as a baby.

Simone Lenoir. - Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island.

Cordelia Chase. - Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel the Series.

Lilah Archer. - Criminal Minds with an alternate faceclaim.

Ariel. - The Little Mermaid.

Cinderella. - Cinderella.

Billie Jenkins. - Charmed.

Brightheart. - Warrior Cats.

Clover Ewing. - Totally Spies.

Hayley Marshall. - The Vampire Diaries / The Originals.

Madame Adelaide Bonfamille. - The Aristocats.

Sibella Dracula. - Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School.

Purdy. - Warrior Cats.

Ravenpaw. - Warrior Cats.

Yellowfang. - Warrior Cats.

Daphne Blake. - Scooby-Doo.

Lena Dupree. - Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island.

Jamie Sullivan. - A Walk To Remember.

Sally "Thorn" McKnight. - Scooby-Doo.

Shirayuki. - Snow White with the Red Hair.

Tohru Honda. - Fruits Basket.

Cordelia Brennan. - A Sonny with a Chance Original Character.

Quinn Fabray. - Glee. Canon Divergent.

Serenity Wheeler. - Yu-gi-oh!

Maisie Florian. - Fandomless Original Character.

Rachel Roth. - Teen Titans / Titans. Alternate Faceclaim.

Jennipher Kline. - Fandomless Vampire Original Character.

#— ✿ ooc.#— ✿ out of character.

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kinocomix · 3 months

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Devlog 16: capturing the magic of living indoors

The script for TSTW is around 7 scenes long so far. At the beginning every story needs time to introduce its characters, movies get away without this by structuring the plot itself around meeting the characters in some way– think about how you always hear about having to “challenge” your characters or how they “evolve”. When a story has lower stakes it can be a bit more difficult doing this without boring the reader, so I've been putting some extra care into carving out the first section. in any case…

Hopefully the title of this devlog gives off the correct vibe which is “ew how tf”. Here's one of the central ideas I want to put across in the killouette project and I'm going to illustrate it with an anecdote. Some years ago, I bought a used notebook from a bookshop. I unfortunately don’t have it on me right now to be able to share pictures of it but it looked something like this:

(this image is not the notebook, this is from google)

to clarify, this notebook is USED used, this was someone’s diary in the 40’s or something. it didn’t have anything too earth shattering– i’m not about to find some hidden treasure any time soon, however it still was really fascinating. This fascination is why a lot of stories are told in the form of “found media”. it’s not necessarily because the narrative is trying to be passed off as legitimate, it’s because a lot of times, the way you tell a story is equally as important as the contents of the story itself. here’s an example. compare texts A and B below:

the boy fell unconscious and had to be taken to the hospital. the paramedics answered his phone and told his mom.

“-hey, do you know anyone by the name of [name]?

-yes, it’s my son, who is this?

-M’am, your son is currently passed out. we’re taking him to the hospital right now.”

Both of these texts say the same thing. it could even be argued that B says less because it doesn’t mention that the mom knows she’s talking to a paramedic. However, B is less boring to read because it frames it within the context of “something is happening” instead of “let me tell you that something is happening”. In games this is called immersion and it’s vital to your enjoyment of any piece of media. This is why when a story breaks the 4th wall too many times it becomes hard to be invested in its narrative. Even deadpool knows that there’s a limit to this and you’ll notice that when the authors of deadpool want you to take it seriously, they stop fucking around.

going back to the notebook i bought, you can now sort of see why the act of reading someone’s mundane thoughts is way more interesting with the right framework. This is the framework that Diary of a wimpy kid is built around.

now I already know that I want to do this for killouette as well, but I want to dial it up a notch. Killouette is going to make her diary a fully illustrated comic, basically reenacting things panel by panel. this makes the animal designs diegetic if done correctly and gives us the chance to do something else that’s really cool, which is to have her pass her notebook around to all her friends and have them write things in it as well. So effectively, what we’re really making isn’t just a notebook, it’s an entire folder of documents and papers compiled by these kids. this could include stuff like schematics, pictures, sheet music, another smaller book, handwritten notes by people, annotations by the kids, etc. etc.

there is an added value by deciding to give the book this treatment. First, it gets rid of the annoying “all seeing reader” element. In TSTW and Almost Home, seeing everything makes sense because the camera is meant to highlight the emotion of the scene and not spoon feed you information. think about how in this scene in Almost Home, I never actually show or tell you what happened to Adelaide in detail. You just know it from her saying something about it. I didn’t show you because it’s meant to be inferred. Here, showing more would have been spoon feeding you a sad story which I didn’t want to do.

In contrast, I wrote an entire chapter to tell the reader that someone is afraid of being poor. The reason I did that is because I thought the scene after it where you see the same person being a jerk regarding money would be more impactful knowing the journey they took to get there.

the second thing this decision helps with is production. As long as the end result look pretty and was made ethically, it really doesn’t matter how short the production timeline was. A comic book drawn by a child would be best done on an actual ruled notebook using whatever a child would have access to and scanned. If you’ve ever doodled comics with a big pen before, you know those don’t take much time at all. this would give more time to work on the more complex aspects of the project like making the sheet music, the pictures, putting the whole thing together… you get the idea.

now let’s go back to the title real quick. In the story, Killouette can’t leave her house (we’ll be talking about that in a later devlog). What this formatting of the book needs to do is show you the mental goings on of this child. The mantra of “show, don’t tell” applies best here. I don’t have a lot of interesting set designs to show you cause it’s just going to be the inside of her room. What I can show is the inside of her brain.

next week we’ll be tackling some of the themes.

devlog updates on tuesdays.

#comic #webcomic #webcomics #kinocomix #devlog #graphic novel #writing #journal comic

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crickey-itsjake · 4 months

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How I Met Him || February 2024 Task

TLDR; Six Year old Jake Rogers asks his Mum where his Dad is. She has a flashback to the night they met and how they broke up. Jake gets an abbreviated version TW: Talk of pregnancy, suggestion of not keeping pregnancy, college drinking/drunkenness [Doc link]

Running through the station, passing by the cows, and stomping through the mud, Jake Rogers was on a mission.

He was 6 years old and at that age, kids would point out anything that made you different and instantly needed to know all about it. Something about someone’s Dad taking them to see the Adelaide Rams during the summer season which led to talks about Dad’s doing things. And then suddenly Jake was fielding questions left and right from the kids in his class about his Dad.

"Where is your daddy?"

"What's he do?"

"Did he die?"

“Do you have two mums? I hear some people have those.”

"Why did he leave?"

"Do ya think he wants to see you, Jake?"

"I've got an uncle and a dad, do you want one?"

He had no answers to these questions. Jake sat there wide eyed, eyes getting bigger behind his glasses by the minute as everyone continued asking him questions, his mouth slack and his brain going a mile a minute. "Uh, I dunno. I'll ask my Mum," was all he could mumble out before it was time to head home.

The work day wasn’t quite over yet, so his mum could be anywhere on the station, horses, cows, sheep or anything in between.

“Mum!” Jake ran through the stables looking for his mum, backpack thudding against his back as the various stable hands pointed in the direction of the sheep out back.

Kelly Rogers, blonde hair back in a pony tail and face shielded from the sun with a large brimmed hat had just hitched her jeans up and vaulted up over the pens from where she had been looking at one of the ewes.

She stepped in front of her son who was careening towards her at a rapid pace, “Oi, slow down, you’re spookin’ the ewe.” She grabbed him, scooping him up easily, “What’s the John Dory, little wallaby?”

“Where’s my dad?” Kelly just about dropped him right there. She had not expected that. She thought she’d have more time before having to explain certain things to him.

“Where’s this coming from, Jake?” She set him back down and kneeled next to him.

His little hand came up on her shoulder, “I have to know at some point.” He stared into her eyes for a long few seconds, very seriously. “Also the kids at school were asking about him and also if I have two mums, but I think you’re the only one right?”

The jillaroo couldn’t help but laugh at that one. “Yeah, you’ve got one mum. I’m your mum, Jake.” She ruffles his sandy colored hair, “And for the purpose of anything they’ve got to say I’m your dad as well.” She paused, “Go get cleaned up for dinner and I’ll tell ya what I can about him, okay?”

Dinner came and went and Jake sat down on the couch of their little house on the station. His legs dangling from the side as he stared up at his mum.

“Guess I should start with how we met.”

The real question was how would she sum all this up for him?

She was suddenly transported back to a time she hadn't thought of in quite a while.

The year was 1992 and Kelly Rogers had been at a local bar in Adeliade with some friends, celebrating the weekend. It was the summer season. She was studying animal husbandry at the uni and it was time to party. “Kelly! C’mon let’s do some shots!” Her best friend Joann called and she just let out a giggle as she ran over to her college friends. “To the summer, yeah?!” She downed a shot and looked towards the door as the breeze came through off the beach and a couple boys walked in from the night. A bloke she’d never seen before walked right in, sandy mullet curled by the waves and a mustache on his big grinning face. “Who’re they,” Joann loudly stage whispered, obviously very, very drunk at this point. Kelly was a little better at pacing herself. “No idea. Probably a couple boys here on holiday.” She breathed out, not taking her eyes off the mustached one. That body was toned under that shirt, she reckoned. They locked eyes and Kelly whispered, “Shit, bugger.” She breathed in deep and looked away, “Is he coming over here?” Joann just stared behind her. She really wasn’t much help. “You mind if I buy you a drink?” She heard a Gold Coast accent say behind her. The blonde girl turned and looked up at the bloke she’d just been caught staring at. “At least then, you can stare without trying to hide it.” She giggled a bit and took him up on the offer. He was cute and funny and well, Jordan was saying all the right things. “I’m only here for the week, but I’d like to keep seein’ ya for a bit if that’s alright. Well, as long as you’ll have me.” “Don’t worry, we’ll give it a fair go when I go back to Queensland. Distance isn't that hard, people do it all the time.” “I feel lucky to have caught a wild one like you, Kelly. You’re absolutely beyond what I imagined.” How could she say no to the entire week with him? Adeliade felt so small, she’d felt like there was nothing new in the dating pool after having been there for long enough. They spent the entire week together. She thought it was leading to love. She thought distance would be okay. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t as easy in 1992 to keep a relationship over 2,000 kilometers away. She had her life and he had his. About a month later, she realized she was up the duff and with no boyfriend in sight. She had a bit of a time trying to figure out how to tell or even if she should tell Jordan. He had barely said anything in their last phone call and she didn’t want him sticking around if he found out just because he felt obligated. Kelly was independent. She always had been, why couldn’t she do this on her own too? She honestly couldn’t help but be excited. She’d wanted to be a mum, maybe not this soon, but she’d wanted it. She’d called him one more time though, because she felt like maybe he’d want to know. He broke up with her and she told him she was going to have his kid. “We’re not in a place to have kids, Kelly!” “No, you’re not in a place to have kids, Jordan. I’m having this kid. And if you don’t want it or me, which you’ve definitely already proven, then we don’t need you in our lives.” She hung up and that was the last time she spoke to him. He didn’t call or write or do anything. The one thing she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt was that she to give that kid the whole world. And so, she did. She finished one final semester of uni and made her way back to Alice Springs where she had some family, got a job on a cattle station (granted it was much more paperwork based while she was in her late stages of pregnancy) and raised Jake Rogers with more love than he could ever want.

Her much more simplified, safe for a 6 year old, retelling of all of this amounted in summary to: “Your dad and I met in Adelaide, we cared about each other very much, but I decided to raise you myself in Alice Springs and he lived in Queensland and sometimes adults can’t work things out to be together in one place.” To which she answered any questions she could that Jake might have.

Young little Jake looked up at Kelly with his wide eyes and glasses and crooked little smile speckled with a few missing teeth and she knew over and over again she’d made the right decision. “Well, that’s alright, mum. You’ve got me. And I’m not an adult so I can work out how to live here. I’m not going anywhere.”

She fought back a tear that was brimming over the edge of her ducts and hugged her little man with all her might. He grunted and whispered, “You’re gonna crush me like a croc, mum. I’m not a fish.”

She pulled back in mock offense, “Like a croc?!” She snapped her hands at him like a mouth and started tickling him. “You sure you’re not a fish?” He wiggled and laughed, squirming from her hands as she laughed, “You’re certainly floppin’ like one now, Jakey.”

Yeah, Kelly Rogers had met some guy named Jordan who helped make this little anklebiter. But she, and everyone at the station and in Alice Springs who had helped raise her kid, was Jake’s father.

#about #oneshot #my boi #selfpara #swyntask

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