"Well, if you're sure you don't want to say anything about it right now that's fine, but if you change your mind, I'll be ready to hear you out, okay?" Charlie said.
"Thanks," Cherie said. Then after a minute she took a deep breath. "I'll be okay, thanks for hearing me out, okay?"
"No problem," Charlie smiled happily at her sister. "I just didn't want any problem to come up between us. I mean one more than has before. Those went away on their own, but it felt like this one could drive us apart and I don't want that."
"I don't either," Cherie replied, picking her phone back up. "Even though you're not the sister I would have liked, I think you're good enough."
Charlie swatted playfully at Cherie. "Thanks a lot."
Cherie laughed as she returned her full focus back to whatever she had been doing on her phone. Charlie was about to get up and leave her sister's room, when their mother called out to them that it was dinner time.
_
Both Charlie and Cherie weren't happy that their mother was called into work for an extra shift towards the end of dinner, but neither of them could do about it. The only consolation that their mother wasn't happy about it either, something to do about a raise she was supposed to get but had been delayed multiple times. Charlie wasn't sure of the details, but figured her mother had it under control.
So, in the end, she went to her room and picked up the book she'd started at camp. Mostly so she could finish it and return it to Beth. It was a mystery book and while it wasn't very long, maybe a hundred pages, she wasn't even halfway through it yet. One thing she didn't understand is why she could read through gardening books that were at least twice as thick as this book in a quarter of the time she'd been working on this one.
The only blessing she had about it was when the storm the weather had predicted showed up, the power went out. Which meant Charlie lost her light for her book. It also meant that it had to be bedtime, since she couldn't do anything else.
Unless she wanted to use her magic, but she'd already agreed with her friends that at times like these around their families, it would make it harder to keep them from learning about magic.
So, she merely put her book down and went to change into her nightgown as the rain began to pelt the roof and occasional lightning flash lit up her room, followed by thunder. Sometimes it was really loud and close, other times rather distant. She also wasn't surprised to hear the sounds of running and someone bumping into walls. She figured it would be her sister, in full panic mode from the combination of the dark and severe weather.
Charlie was about to put her nightgown on, when Cherie burst into her room and only knew where Charlie was as a flash of lightning shone through the window at that moment. Cherie ran over to Charlie, glomping her with enough force to knock her over and cause her drop her nightgown.
"Why didn't you come to my room already?" Cherie wailed, her terror in full force.
Charlie wrapped her arms around her sister, trying to push out of her mind that she was in just her underwear. "I was getting into my nightgown when you came in. You know I wouldn't leave you alone during this," Charlie said, hoping her words were comforting to her sister. "But would you at least let me get my nightgown on?"
Cherie might have let her do that right then, but as soon as she finished her request, another flash of lightning lit up the room and Charlie could see her sister hadn't even started to get ready for bed herself. That flash was followed almost immediately with a loud crash of thunder.
Charlie could feel her sister trembling as she held Charlie close. Charlie couldn't help but sigh. It might be a few minutes before Cherie was calm enough for Charlie to finish getting ready for bed herself.
If the power hadn't gone out, then maybe Cherie wouldn't be so panicked right now, but there wasn't anything Charlie could do, and while she briefly considered using magic on her sister to help calm her, even the thought of doing that left a sour taste in her mouth. It felt like it would be almost as bad as making her sister do something because she wanted her to, rather than talking with her about it first.
While it probably was only a few minutes, it felt like it was an hour or two before Cherie was able to let go of Charlie enough so she could get her nightgown on. After which, Charlie accompanied her sister to her room, where Cherie merely took her clothing off until she was in her underwear before climbing in the bed. Charlie knew better than to try and get Cherie to put her pajamas on, given how close some of the lightning was striking to their home. So, Charlie got in her sister's bed with her and tried to get to sleep with her sister curled up in a ball next to her.
Maybe it was that she knew her sister was in her underwear, which did make Charlie a little uncomfortable, or how she rarely was in her sister's room, or maybe it was the posters in her sister's room that put Charlie on edge, but she was having a rather difficult time getting to sleep.
As she heard her sister's breathing become deep and regular, she didn't begrudge Cherie being able to get to sleep so quickly. If anything, it let Charlie relax a little more, as she wouldn't need to deal with her sister's panic anymore. At least for tonight.
As she couldn't sleep, Charlie let her mind go over the events that had occurred recently. Not just the meeting of Arachii, but also what Beth had said about what Heathcliff might try if he learned about her crush on Shirley. While she wouldn't mind a relationship with the older girl, she kept in mind that she was probably too young to even attract any real interest from Shirley. At which point, Charlie felt her breathing stop for a moment as she finally connected what Beth probably was worried about.
Yes, Charlie was likely too young for Shirley to really be interested in, but if she was, then would Charlie look at anything else but that a girl she liked, liked her back? Would she consider anything that might ruin the fantasy she probably would be living in in her mind?
A swirl of emotions began to form in Charlie as she considered what a relationship with the older girl might look like, both benign as well as worst case. While it let her know she really needed to let her feelings towards Shirley go, she couldn't help but wonder if she somehow succeeded in doing that, if those feelings wouldn't just return if Shirley showed an inkling of interest in her. For any reason.
Even though it took a while, she eventually did fall asleep. Not that she could say when that was. However, given where her thoughts were at that time, her dreams were rather troubled, but at least when she woke up, while she couldn't remember the dreams, the storm had passed and a sunny morning shone through her sister's window. Cherie still curled next to her, still asleep.
_
"So, you're saying you agree with me now?" Beth asked Charlie.
They were sitting on Beth's bed in her room. The room was in the middle of being redecorated. There were still newspaper articles of various subjects hung on parts of the walls, but a few were clearly in the process of being torn down. Mostly as space was needed for things being put up. At the moment posters of nature scenes were being put up. The only part of the walls that didn't seem to be getting touched was a poster of 'Glitter Force' that Charlie had been wanting to ask about, but not sure if she should Mostly because she wasn't sure she really wanted to know.
"On the subject of Shirley and Heathcliff, yeah, I agree that I may have a problem there," Charlie said, not sure what she could do about it at the moment.
"You know what to do about that, right?" Beth asked, leaning against the wall by the head of her bed.
"Maybe," Charlie admitted. "I have an idea, but I'm not sure if that it would be enough."
Beth nodded. "Good, even if you have a terrible idea, acknowledging it might not be enough, at least then you'll keep your mind open to other ideas as well."
"Mostly I think if I keep away from Shirley, I should be fine," Charlie said, her eyes boring a hole in the center of Beth's quilt.
"Given we don't have any plans of frequenting Heathcliff's place, that should be good," Beth acknowledged.
Their conversation was interrupted at that moment by a knock on Beth's open door. Both of them turned to see Beth's oldest sister, Stacie, at the door.
"Need something Stace?" Beth asked.
"Just wanted to remind you, it's time," Stacie replied before leaving the doorway. Then a moment later they could hear the sounds of Stacie going down the stairs. Stacie was around ten years old, stood around four foot two, had blond hair and blue eyes. Aside from her eyes, she looked almost like a younger Beth.
"What's time?" Charlie asked.
"My family gets together to watch a series on Netflix. We have a tradition of watching it together after lunchtime, at least when we're on summer break," Beth replied, as she slid to the edge of her bed before getting up.
"What series do you watch?" Charlie asked.
"Glitter Force," Beth said, a mischievous glint in her eyes.
Charlie paused in climbing off of Beth's bed. "You mean like that poster?"
"Yeah, the same," Beth said, not looking at Charlie, but walking casually towards her door. "Want to watch with us?"
Charlie shrugged. "Sure, I guess."
"That's the spirit," Beth said cheerfully.
Charlie followed Beth as she went downstairs and entered the living room. The couches were already filled with Beth's six siblings. Stacie was at the left armrest of the big couch with the remote, Beth's brother Dale was sitting on the floor, resting his back against the couch in-between couch cushions, while Beth's next oldest sisters, Katie and Lisa were sitting above him, and Beth's youngest sister, Harriet, was in an infant car seat, on the armchair, which is where Beth moved to sit.
Dale was around twelve, stood around four foot seven, had brown hair, and hazel eyes that were the exact shade as Beth's. Katie had blond hair, crystal blue eyes, was about three foot eight, and was five. Lisa was a redhead with almost sea green eyes, was only about two inches shorter than Katie and was four. Harriet was only eight months old and had brown-blond hair and sea blue eyes.
Charlie took a minute to navigate her way over to the loveseat that was still open and sat, not sure what to expect Glitter Force to be like. All she really knew from the poster was that the main characters were girls and that it was an anime. Part of her was curious, but the bigger part of her was already bored. While she'd gotten a little bit interested in My Little Pony, she still didn't find watching TV or any streaming service that interesting.
What surprised her most was not that they watched the intro, but that Beth and her siblings sang the song with the TV. She thought that they were all more interested in the series as it had been something they'd all done together for a while, rather than each of them being a super fan of the series.
One thing Charlie noticed almost right away about the series was that they were already partway though the series. Not that she really minded, as she didn't really follow the series anyway. The next thing she noticed was that Dale was just as into the series as his sisters. Though close to the end of the third episode, some of his friends knocked on the door and he acted like they saved him from 'suffering through watching' the series that he clearly loved.
Maybe it was to avoid getting teased by it from his friends or maybe it was something else, but Charlie wasn't so worried about that. It wasn't her business anyway.
As she watched the series, she found herself mildly interested in it, but not enough that she wanted to see all of it from start to finish. She was happy that it wasn't as boring to her as she had expected that it would be. Though, she still wouldn't mind doing something else, but not enough to complain as they watched five episodes before their mother got home.
While Beth's mother did work as an escort, during the day she primarily worked at a convenience store. She was around five foot seven, had blond hair, and hazel eyes that were a little darker than Beth's, and Charlie thought she'd heard from Beth that her mother was around 34.
The credits for the fifth episode had just started when she opened the front door. "I'm home!" she called out, at which point Stacie backed out of the series as everyone but Harriet rushed over to greet their mother. The younger they were, the faster they rushed to their mother.
When they finished the greetings, their mother looked at them and asked, "Where's Dale?"
"He left about forty minutes ago with some of his friends," Beth said.
"Okay, as long as he's back before dinner," she commented absently.
"Would you like a snack?" Katie asked.
"Thanks, but I'm good, dear," she replied, carefully making her way through her children. "I think I'll just have a nap before I need to go out later."
"What would you like for dinner, mom?" Beth asked.
"Doesn't matter. Order pizza if you like," she said.
Beth sighed, clearly unhappy with the response, while her sisters cheered at the idea of pizza. It was clear Beth had other ideas of what she would have liked as an answer.
Charlie stood away from them, not sure what else she could do at the moment. She assumed that Beth's mother was tired and giving a quick answer to a problem she didn't have the energy to deal with, but at the same time, it felt like it might be a common occurrence that she returned home this tired.
When her mother went into her room and closed the door, Beth returned to her own room and Charlie followed her. When Charlie entered Beth's room, Beth was laying face down on her bed, her head directly laying on her pillow.
"Want to talk about it?" Charlie asked, not sure what else to say or do.
Beth turned her head so she could speak clearly. "Not really, but it's not like letting it go would do any good."
"You didn't look happy with what your mom said about dinner."
"Yeah, that's her go-to solution for dinner. I hoped that she'd just tell me to make something, but the others are now looking forward to pizza, so likely I'll need to place the order, since I know where my mom keeps her credit cards."
"Would you rather make something for you and me and order pizza for your family and we could have a dinner in here?" Charlie asked, not sure where this idea was coming from.
"Sounds good, but not really. I asked my mom because I knew that she'd be too tired to make anything later and this was the only chance I could think of to try and get something else, and also to try and do something for her," Beth said, her tone starting off casual, but ending up sounding depressed.
"Is there anything you'd like me to help with?"
"Maybe, but we'll see what will need to be done later," Beth replied. "I can't say what my mom will ask me to do later while she's out. Though, it would be nice if there was a list I could just follow."
"Would you like me to read to you?" Charlie asked, not wanting to exactly caring If she read to Beth. She was just hoping that it might make it easier to get through the book. "I'm still working on that book you made me borrow."
"Hey, I didn't make you do anything?" Beth protested, rolling her body so it was resting on its side. "You just didn't look in your bags after I switched it out for your gardening book."
"Call it what you will, I still hadn't agreed to borrow it."
Beth laughed. "Maybe, but if you want to read it now go ahead. I've read it before, so I don't need to hear you read it. I'll be fine watching you read if I don't take a nap myself."
"When do you need to order the pizza?" Charlie asked.
"Well, it's almost three now, so probably in an hour or an hour and a half," Beth answered. "I should be done with a nap if I take one now, by then."
Charlie shook her head as she settled down on the floor next to Beth's bed, resting her back against the bed. She pulled out the book from the bag she'd packed for the week-long stay while Beth pulled her covers over her as she settled in to take a nap.