RP: Christmas at House Milburn

[rori_milburn]

Date: December 25, 2011
Characters: Rori Milburn, Cody Milburn, Shosh Wise, Sloane Wise (NPC), William and Sarah Milburn (NPCs), Mark and Cheyenne (Madison, Brian, Jennifer and Patrick) (NPCs), Adam and Dakota (Stephanie, Kevin, and Chad) (NPCs), Helena (Wade and Cole) (NPCs)
Location: Cransfill Cap, TX
Status: Private
Summary: It’s a very merry

Comments

[rori_milburn]

"I think that at this point you probably have tried to kill him more often than I have," Rori agreed with a chuckle. They still bickered horribly, definitely more now than Rori ever did with Cody these days, mostly because she and her brother got on rather well. "Exactly. So she's not really doing that much without," she said. "When she starts asking questions, I guess just be honest. I mean, she's got all of us. She won't lack for support, and I don't see her acting too badly over it." But then, what did she know.

Rori snorted. "I still say you two would make a good couple if you would stop trying to kill each other," she said. "You'd make me pretty nieces and nephews, anyway." Okay, so she was teasing. Mostly. Even if she did think if they could stop their habitual bickering, they would get along rather well.

"Yes, well, somehow I don't see that stopping Sloane," Rori teased. "But yes, one of my nephews might do very well." She grinned. "True, but he does have a bit of city in him, but not in the worst way." He wasn't an arrogant prick, in other words. She didn't always mean it that way, but that was how she'd started out calling people like that so many years ago. "Yeah, I went by awhile back and he was the only one around to harass. He's not that bad." Something about him struck a chord in her, though she couldn't put her finger on what, exactly.

[shoshana_wise]

"And yet all those attempts and I've still yet to succeed." Shosh remarked with a faint smirk. She really couldn't help the way she and Cody bickered, and would hold to the opinion that he often started it, even if she knew she was as much at fault as he was. "No, she's definitely not lacking." A fact which Shosh appreciated quite a bit. "You know I don't have any other way than being direct and honest. Just hoping she gives me a few more years before I have to explain her lack of a father to her." And she would have people like Rori, Graham, and even Cody around to support her little girl if she took the information poorly.

Shosh quirked an eyebrow. "Have you already started drinking today?" She asked, always amused when Rori brought up the subject of Cody and her as a couple. "I can't argue against that, they would be pretty." Shosh knew Rori was kidding, or at least she hoped she was. Somehow she had a feeling that she and Cody would never be able to stop bickering long enough to get along, but that was just her thoughts.

"Well she is a Wise, so I wouldn't put it past her." Shosh replied with a half smirk. "Or she might end up treating an age appropriate Milburn the same way her Mama does." She pointed out with a laugh. "Oh god, yes he does. Should have seen him the first time he got up on a horse, it was hilarious as all hell." And it really had been, and Shosh still regretted not having a camera on her at the time. "He's really not, and sometimes if you're around him long enough he'll do or say something that's so extremely like Graham, it's kind of freaky." Shosh liked the kid a lot though, and realized she probably shouldn't call him a kid as she was only a handful of years older than him, which was just that much weirder that Graham had a kid that was nearly her age.

[rori_milburn]

"You two keep trying, I'm sure one of you will do the other in someday, and I'll be the one cleaning up the blood and lying to the police, just you wait and see," Rori said, shaking her head in amusement. "I doubt she'll really think of it on her own any time soon," she said honestly. "But if it does come up we'll be here."

Rori snorted. "Not yet and you know it," she retorted. She didn't bring up the thought often, knowing how much Shosh disagreed with her occasional assessment that her brother and her best friend would make a good couple. "Very pretty," she said with a slight sigh, tipping her head back a bit. She sometimes wondered if nieces and nephews were all she would ever get. Gah. Being around all her family was fuckign with her head.

"Let's hope she chooses the nicer way of dealing with it and merely takes one to husband one day," Rori said dryly, obviously amused. "Oh, that must have been priceless," she said. "Oh yeah, he's got the same 'can't ruffle my feathers' quality about him that Graham does. I couldn't annoy him to save my life."

[shoshana_wise]

"You know you'll be cleaning up after Cody's death, 'cause the boy wouldn't know how to fight back if it up and smacked him upside the head." She remarked, though even Shosh could admit Cody was a good guy, who wouldn't hit a girl, no matter how annoying said girl was; and she was annoying. "Probably won't, not unless they have some twisted 'Bring your Dad to school day' or something for kindergarten, in which case you know she'll bug Cody until he agrees to go with her." She nodded. "I know I'll have people to back me up, of which I am immensely thankful for."

Shosh laughed. "Just checking 'cause you've started in on the crazy speak." she remarked with a quirked eyebrow. She knew how Rori felt about this subject, how she was convinced that if she and Cody could just manage to not fight, they'd actually make some kind of odd sense. "Yeah, too bad that brother of yours opens his mouth and ruins the pretty illusion, any kid of his would likely do the same." Shosh could act like she wasn't aware that Cody was attractive, but she just didn't see the point. "But y'know you'll end up with kids who'll be ten times prettier." She knew a bit of how her friend felt about having kids of her own, and she definitely didn't share the same opinion that it might never happen for her.

"Marrying off my little one already, huh?" She teased, pausing a moment before adding. "Though if she had to have an arranged marriage, one landing her in the chaos that is your family wouldn't be half bad." Which was the honest truth, the Milburn family had always been good to her and Sloane. "It was so priceless, think Graham laughed for a half hour at the sight." Granted she thought half of Noah's issue was he as tall and entirely all leg. "You noticed that too, huh? I've been trying for months, and yet he gives me the same damn look Graham always had. Think it's impossible to get under his skin." Which only amused her more, 'cause he was so much like his Dad, which made Shosh wondered what traits Sloane might have from her own father that she wasn't even aware of.

[rori_milburn]

“He doesn’t hit girls, you know that,” Rori said with a faint shrug. “So until he decides you’re not a girl, I guess I would have to clean him up.” At least she knew the two of them would never do that. Not really. They might joke about it a lot, but in the end they were more family than anything else, and she kenw that they both knew Rori would bash their heads in if they actually hurt each other. “I think there’s, like a parent career day, maybe not in Kindergarden though. But you can always go for that. Though I’m sure Cody would entertain all the children.”

She rolled her eyes. “I don’t think it’s that crazy, but what-ev,” she said. She snorted again. “Ha. He’s not that bad. Some days I wish I knew what y’all did to each other in a past life to put yourselves so at odds with each other. And somehow I think you’d love any kid of his like he loves your kid, so there.” She stuck out her tongue stubbornly. “Ha, yeah, sure. You’ve always been the prettier one and you know it.” She’d always been the ice bitch of the circuit.

“Let’s call it planning ahead,” she said with a grin. “Either way, she always has a place in my family.” Just like Shosh. They were like sisters, but not as well. Rori never had penned a term for what exactly it was they had other than best friends,t hough they weren’t much like most best friends. “Mm, boy is all fucking leg. I got a couple of thoroughbreds at Iron Hollow he might fit on right though. If he wanted to try.” It just depended on the build of the person sometimes. “Might have to put him on English saddles, so his legs don’t dangle so far.” She rolled her eyes again. “Yeah, I know. I tried a bit. I was in a weird mood when I went over there, but there was no ruffling his damn feathers,” she grumped.

[shoshana_wise]

"I know he doesn't, which is exactly why you'd be cleaning up after his death and not mine. I'd win by default, as you and I both know if Cody actually did fight back I'd be screwed." Shosh replied with a half smile, it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that she would really be no match against Cody. "Don't think I'd go easy on him just because he won't fight back." Those were empty words as she wouldn't really attack Cody, and she definitely would not get to the point of killing him. "Oh god, can't you picture me at a career day? Wouldn't probably be safer to send him, think he knows how to parent better than I do." He was always the one bitching about the things he thought she shouldn't do around a toddler, and most of the time he was right.

She chuckled softly. "Fine, maybe it's not crazy, maybe you see something everyone else can't." That wasn't to say that Shosh believed it wasn't crazy, just that Rori wasn't crazy for thinking it. "When you figure that one out, can you let me know? And that last part, you know it's right. He's family, you know I'd love his kid....and hope that the kid didn't inherit his personality." Shosh couldn't argue with Rori on that last part, it was true, though she wasn't likely to admit that stuff if Cody had actually been within earshot. "Like hell I have, you know you've always been the one grabbing more attention than me." She argued, leveling a serious look at Rori.

"Call it whatever you want." she said with a laugh. "I know she does, and you know I appreciate that. Might not say it enough, but I do." She appreciated it even more now that her Dad was gone. Even though nothing would ever replace him, at least she could be assured that she still had people who cared for her. A best friend that was more like a sister, but maybe not even that, but something else entirely. "God, he really is. Not sure throwing him up on a hotblooded Thoroughbred would be wise, kid's got half a fear of horses. Though he'd have a heart attack just riding Bruiser around, and you know Bruiser wouldn't do a damn thing to him." It had been amusing to watch. "Plus what the hell is he going to hold onto? Those English saddles you've got over there don't have horns." She teased, although she might pay good money to put Noah on a horse that was tacked up in English gear. "What had you in a funny mood? and there really isn't, in that respect it's like father, like son." Which was damn weird sometimes.

[rori_milburn]

“Like I’d think that,” she said, snorting softly. “I can, actually, and I have to wonder if I’d have to go there to moderate. I mean, you’re great with Sloane and all, but you’re kinda shit with other people sometimes,” she said. It was the truth, and one Shosh was rather upfront about, so she had no qualms saying it. “Might just be safer, though it would probably raise questions with the teacher. Though damn it, he’s not a better parent. You’re doing just fine with that yourself.” Rori wasn’t a parent, no, but Sloane seemed to be doing just fine with Shosh.

“I am. I’m magical that way,” she said somewhat dryly. “Personality isn’t that bad. Just somehow you all are too much the same, I guess.” Though if that were true, she and Shosh shouldn’t like each other very much, and that was decidedly not true. “Maybe I should find some smart person to write the theory out for me or something in scientific terms so we can figure out how to disprove it.” Rori blatantly rolled her eyes. “They just want in my pants because I don’t want them in my pants,” she replied. “It’s like they sense it and want to try to ‘fix’ me.” She said that more softly, glancing carefully around the room.

“Mm, there’s a few that won’t run off with him. Man, I don’t understand this fear of horses. Be afraid of cows, that makes more sense to me.” She played with a strand of hair, brushing it back and forth across her lips, reminding herself not to bite on her hair. “There’s these things, Shosh, they’re called reins. That’s what he’ll hold onto,” she said sarcastically, fully expecting to be smacked for it. She lifted a shoulder, wishing she hadn’t even mentioned it. “Just work, I guess. Ainsley’s not been around much.” Or really at all. So the burden of the work load fell on her shoulders.

[shoshana_wise]

You would, and you know it." She replied with a decisive nod. "You would have to come and moderate, 'cause I'm liable to start a fight with another parent." She was shit with people, and knew this well. All too often she just didn't put up with idiots or annoying people, and sometimes she felt like the world was made up of both. "It would be safer, and let the teacher ask questions, I don't care." She sighed as Rori admonished her about parenting. "I know, I know. There's just times I wonder I could be better, y'know?" She attributed a lot of her success as a parent to the people she had around her.

"Your magical now?" She laughed, quirking an eyebrow as she leveled a look at her friend. "Says the sister. Cody's best when he's not talking and simply showing off that pretty face of his." Shosh pointed out, knowing that Rori got a kick out of the fact that sh actually told Cody once he had a pretty face. Shosh still regretted that comment, though now she had chosen to just accept it happened and run with it. "We'd have to understand the theory though, and would that happen if we have some genius write it out?" She wasn't stupid, but she also wasn't the smartest girl around. "Or it could just be the fact that you're fucking hot, meanwhile I look like the pretty girl next door." She frowned at Rori when she talked about being fixed. "Ain't nothing to fix, you're perfect just as you are. Any idiot that thinks otherwise will just have to answer to me." She hated that her friend spoke like that, to her she was still Rori, nothing had changed.

"Oh yeah, might have to cart him over to your place, then." She said, figuring she wouldn't give Noah much of a choice. "He's not fond of cows either." A true city boy shown through whenever he got near livestock, and Shosh found it endlessly amusing. "Wait, is that what those things are for?" She asked jokingly as she reached over and smacked Rori's foot lightly before she got up from where she was sitting on the couch and moved over to drop herself into Rori's lap annoyingly, flashing a smile at her friend. "D'you need a hand? I can send a couple of my guys over to help you?" She didn't like the fact that work was putting Rori in a funny mood.

[rori_milburn]

“Last thing I’d want is for you to get sent to the principal’s office,” Rori teased. “Though you know people would talk if I went in with you.” Not like they didn’t talk about her and shosh every now and then anyway, which was weird to Rori as she was only friends with Shosh, close friends, but friends. Ava was the only one she was interested in in any other way. “I guess everyone can do better? But all parents have to, like, learn.”

“I’ve always been magical, you just never noticed,” Rori said archly. “Hm, if you say so, but I don’t believe it,” she replied. She did get a kick out of Shosh calling her brother pretty, it was funny to her. “It might. Depends on the genius,” she said. She snorted and shook her head. “I’m hot, but not that hot,” she scoffed. “Girls next door get more action than you’d think, I hear. The movies say so. Yeah, well, you know what people say.” It just takes the right man. How many times had she heard men crack that joke, not knowing she was one of those women.

Rori oomped as Shosh plopped into her lap. “You are such a fucking brat,” she told her, shifting so she could actually breathe with Shosh on top of her. “It’s more I’m trying to figure out the damn management stuff. I’ve not taken classes like you and Graham and shit. So I’m kinda figuring a bit of it out as I go.” She didn’t want to admit to anyone just yet, not til Ainsley told her directly, that her boss was thinking of selling the ranch.

[shoshana_wise]

"I don't know, might not be so bad if the principal is cute." Shosh joked, though she could remember a few trips to the principal's office when she had been in school, and none of them had ended well. "Oh now, that would be fun. Confuse the hell out of the other parents." She didn't much care if people talked, wasn't like that didn't already do it to some degree or another. "Yeah, parenting is a constant learning experience."

"Have you now? So you're saying I'm just unobservant?" Shosh quirked an eyebrow. "Course you don't, you're his sister." She pointed out with a laugh. They would just have to agree to disagree on this. "Knowing our luck we'd get a genius we wouldn't be able to understand." she said. Leveling a serious look at Rori, she sighed. "No, you are that hot." she replied stubbornly. "Well apparently this girl next door doesn't. I do, and those people are fucking morons." And guys were the worse of them.

Shosh attempted her best 'innocent' look while flashing a smile. "Am I?" she asked, purposefully not getting off of Rori's lap. "What does that make you for being the best friend of a brat?" She asked, frowning as Rori began talking about her work stresses. "Y'know Graham or I would be willing to help, likely you'd be better picking Graham's brain about these things, though." Shosh poked Rori in the side. "What good are friends who can help if you don't let them do it?"

[rori_milburn]

Rori laughed. “So you just want to be punished, huh,” she said slyly, winking at her friend. “Kinky, Shosh. Really kinky.” She stuck her tongue out at her friend. “Ha yeah, it would, and then you’d have to deal with them and their worries and prejudices.” And she kind of thought that those would annoy Shosh more than a lot of other things.

“I suppose that is what I’m saying,” she said, raising her eyebrows right back at Shosh. She snorted and shook herhead. “Whatever, smart ass,” she said, shrugging. She didn’t necessarily agree. She knew she was hot, certainly. But not at the level Shosh claimed. “That’s because you chase them off so they’re forced to look at her forlornly from a distance, like little puppy dogs. So sad.”

Rori slung an arm around Shosh with a sigh. “Makes me a bitch, I suppose. But that’s nothing new, now is it,” she replied. “I know, but y’all are busy with your own stuff. I’m handling most of it, it’s just… overwhelming, I suppose,” she said, shrugging again.

[shoshana_wise]

Shosh flashed Rori a wicked smirk. "Ah hell, truth's out now." She joked. "I'm kinky." She was only able to keep a straight face for moments before her expression crumbling into a happy smile. "Which would be like hell, if only because I'd want to injure the lot of them." She remarked honestly, never taking kindly to those comments now that she knew the pertained to her best friend, a person Shosh was very protective of.

"So after all these years the truth finally comes out?" she joked, giggling softly. "Smart ass and damn proud of it." Shosh wasn't apologetic about who she was, never had been, ad never would be. "Right, because I purposefully chase them off." She replied dryly. "Has nothing to do with the fact they ere the words 'single mother' and freak out or anything, not at all."

Shosh shook her head. "Well you now you're in pretty damn good company, I've been accused of being a bitch more than one." She remarked with a shrug. "Rori Milburn! I am not now, nor will I ever be too bus for you." Shosh said in al seriousness. "Next time you're feeling overwhelmed you call me, and if you don't I think I might just have to hunt your ass down."

[rori_milburn]

“Well, sweets, you do admit you’re terrible with people,” Rori pointed out dryly. She knew that wasn’t the only reason, though, and Shosh did have a point about being a single mother. “They shouldn’t. It’s not like it would become an issue unless you got serious with someone, and you know I’d babysit for you whenever you wanted to go out.” And she was serious about that offer. She loved Sloane, she’d take care of her anytime.

Rori rolled her eyes slightly. “I know you aren’t, but you all have enough on your plate without adding all my shit to it,” she said, not that she wouldn’t pick their brains at some point because there were a few areas in which she needed help. “I’ve got some of it handled, but I feel like I either need to hire someone else to do those managerial things, or someone to take over osme of my duties in the barn. And neither thing is something I really particularly want to do.” Especially the latter, even if she should focus on the former. IT was a set of circumstances she wasn’t particularly keen on.

[shoshana_wise]

"And I'm not arguing that fact. I am terrible with people, so are we surprised that I chase guys off?" Shosh remarked honestly. Sighing softly she knew Rori was right, that the single mom thing didn't have to be an issue, but a lot of guys did make it an issue or they tried to father Sloane. Neither option was great, and she half thought a guy didn't exist that would put up with her hesitance in relationships and the fact that she had a child. "I know you would, I just have to find someone who'll accept the whole kid thing." She paused. "And someone who doesn't think they have to play Dad to her." Maybe if she ever got serious enough with someone it would factor in, but she didn't think she'd reach that point.

Shosh almost glared at Rori as she spoke. "We do, doesn't mean we cant' help you. You'd do the same damn thing for me." she said, wanting to make it clear that it wouldn't be a burden to help her out. "Hon, you can't do everything. I know the feeling, but really you can't be in both places at once, so you just need to find and hire someone you trust to help with one thing or the other." Shosh knew she was lucky in that she had Graham, who was in essence the managerial side of North Tree.

[rori_milburn]

“Well, they shouldn’t try to play dad if and until things get serious, I agree with that,” Rori told her. She remembered one of the issues Shosh had had with the last guy had ended up pushing Shosh too far too fast. “Because, I mean, in that case if things really were serious it might be justified.” But it would take getting rather serious, honestly. “Besides, no reason they even have to meet Sloane if you just want to have some fun. That’s where us babysitters come in.”

Rori sighed and nodded. “I know, I know. I would do the same,” she said. And she did know, and she would, but sometimes that just didn’t translate in her brain. Often she was too independent. “I should, yeah. But then I have to figure out which one. I feel obligated to the one, and I want to do the other. It’s really frustrating,” she admitted, head falling back. “I’m not sure what I should do.”

[shoshana_wise]

"Try telling that to them." Shosh muttered, although she'd only had the once experience she kind of worried that all guys would feel the need to play father to Sloane. Yes, at some point she wanted her daughter to have a father figure, though she thought the little girl wasn't lacking for that at all, not with Graham and too an extent even Cody around to watch after her. "Yeah, if things got serious it would make sense." She agreed. Sighing she nodded. "I know they don't have too, and I'll probably be wiser this time around. They're going to know about her though, I can't hide that fact from any potential date."

Shosh nodded. "Exactly, which is all the more reason you should listen to me." She reasoned, knowing her friend was about as stubborn as she was. "It is, now if only scientists had figured out a way to clone humans...if they did you could have your very own Graham." She laughed, just picturing how Rori would try and drive the Graham clone insane. "What's its not entirely about what you should do, and more about what you'd like to do. Listen to what your heart is telling you and maybe you'll find the answer there."