blueberry yogurt 6 + butterscotch - emotional rescue
Author:
hi_falootin
Story: Second Chances
Prompt: Blueberry Yogurt 6. alibi + Butterscotch + Sprinkles
Rating: PG
Word count: 2255
Notes: For some reason, this one wanted to be about Rayn's parents as teenagers :O So it's a bit like a standalone since I don't think anyone will be familiar with the characters.
"I need a favor," Anna says. With her sister covering for her, Anna slips out into the night to go...hang out in the back of a van?
Anna uses her key and walks inside without knocking. Dinah looks up from washing dishes in the kitchen when Anna kicks the door closed.
"I need a favor," Anna says.
Dinah makes a face at her sister. "Hello to you too."
Ignoring that, Anna steps into the kitchen, frowns a the mini-blinds and then shuts them with a zwip! of the lift cord. Dinah raises her eyebrows.
"I think Mom and Dad might be watching me," Anna says, peering out between the slats.
Dinah looks alarmed. "You can see in my window from the house?"
"Only sort of." Satisfied, Anna lets the blinds snap closed again. "So this favor, it's a very, very, small one..."
"What is it?"
"I'm grounded," Anna said. "But I need to meet someone tonight, so I told Mom that I was coming over here cause you wanted me to help with Angie, but what I really need is to slip out the back door and for you to...pretend I didn't."
Dinah finishes drying her hands and then-after throwing the rag aside-sets them on her hips. "What did you do?"
"Nothing," Anna says, frowning down at the linoleum. "I mean, seriously, nothing. Just being my normal, stupid self." She winds a piece of hair around her finger. Dinah's still waiting for an answer. "I might be failing English."
"Oh, Anna-"
"It's okay." She waves it away. "Seriously, don't worry about it."
"Can you find a tutor or-"
"I said, don't," Anna says. She fiddles with a loose thread on the bottom of her jacket, avoiding Dinah's eyes. "Mom and Dad just think I'm not trying anyway...anyway, will you cover for me? I mean, just if Mom calls. I'll only be gone a little while."
If Dinah wants to push the tutor issue further, she manages to bite her tongue. "And what do I get in exchange?"
"Two free hours of childcare?"
Dinah laughs. "You wish. I'm not going to risk Mom's wrath for two measly hours. Let's make it four. And don't take Angie to another one of those rock concerts, okay? It can't be good for her ears."
"Fine, four. Greedy. Where is Angie anyway?"
"She's playing with her blocks." Dinah turns to call across the hall. "Being a good girl while Mommy finishes the dishes, right?"
"I'll say hi on my way out," Anna says. She slaps Dinah's shoulder affectionately. "Thanks, sis!"
"You'll be back soon, right?" Dinah glances at the kitchen clock, cat-shaped, with a tail ticking off the seconds. "Before nine?"
"Fine, before nine."
"Wait"-Dinah grabs her sleeve-"who are you meeting anyway that's so important?"
Anna opens her mouth and then hesitates.
"You have to tell me if I'm going to lie for you," Dinah warns. "Is it a boy?"
Anna shakes off her grip. "Yes," she says, "but no one you know. Seriously, Di, I'll tell you all about it when I get back, but I have to go"
"Does he go to your school? How old is he?" At Anna's annoyed expression, Dinah adds, "Well if I'm going to lie for you, I want to know you're not just running off with some psycho who want to cut you up into tiny pieces."
"He's not a psycho, okay? It'll be fine." Anna shakes her head. "You sound like Mom."
"I just-"
"You don't have to worry about me," Anna says. "Just worry about Angie."
With that, she slips out of the kitchen.
"Angie isn't the one meeting strange boys when she's supposed to be grounded!" Dinah calls after her, stepping out of the kitchen just in time to see Anna ruffle Angie's hair and bound out the back door.
Angie looks up at her mother from her place on a floor, a colored block in each of her hands.
"Right, Angie?" Dinah asks, kneeling down beside her. "Say, 'right, Mommy.'"
"Right!" Angie says brightly.
* * *
As Anna climbs into the back of the van, her Doc Martens slip against the bumper and Ignacio catches her arm to keep her from falling.
"You okay?" he asks, with his big stupid grin and she looks away, self-conscious.
"Thanks," she says, in what she hopes is a neutral tone. Ignacio will flirt with anyone, and the last thing Anna wants is to appear interested.
"Hey." Anna looks up at the sound of Sandy's voice; he's sitting on one of the make-shift benches, originally a crate of some kind. "I thought you weren't going to make it."
"Nah," Anna says, trying to sound flippant. "I just had to deal with my sister." She takes a seat next to Sandy. The bench is the right size for her, but he has to sit with his knees almost up to his chin.
"I'm glad you made it out," Sandy says. Anna nods. She loves his subtle, close-mouthed smile, so different from Ignacio's blatant flirting.
Ignacio nudges her leg with something cold and when she looks, she sees he's offering her a beer.
"Um, thanks," she says. Turning back to Sandy, she adds, "I can't stay too long. My parents are pissed at me."
"Yeah?" Sandy says. "Why?"
"Umm..." Anna opens the can and licks the foam from around the rim. "I'm failing some classes."
"Bummer," Sandy says.
It sounds genuine, Anna thinks, watching as he takes a beer from Ignacio too.
"It's okay," she says, "I think I'm going to drop out anyway." It's the first time she's said that outloud, the first time she's really allowed that idea to form into something that could be expressed to another human being. She takes a long swallow of her beer. She can sense both of them watching at her, although for the moment she's unwilling to look at even Sandy.
"Hey," Ignacio says, "if you do, maybe Sandy can take your GED for you."
Anna laughs without meaning to. "What?"
"It's kind of a side business," Sandy says. "It's surprising how much people will pay you to take a test for them."
Isn't that illegal? Anna wants to ask, but instead she asks, "Isn't it hard?"
"Nah, it's easy." Sandy shrugs. "It's just math and English. You could probably pass it right now."
"Don't believe him," Ignacio warns. "He thinks everything is easy."
"I'm fine at math," Anna says. "It's English I suck at." And history, she doesn't add-she's not officially failing history yet, but that's only because most of that grade is based on a final paper and test at the end of the semester. She tried to read the book, but it was like every sentence was written in Greek and she couldn't get through all the assigned pages unless she was willing to sit there for hours.
But she doesn't want Sandy to think she's an idiot at everything. "So you don't have to study?"
"You can," Sandy says. "I don't."
"Mr. Know-it-all," Ignacio sing-songs.
Sandy waves it away. "It's not like I've been out of school that long-a year's not enough to forget everything."
Anna wonders if he's embarrassed, the way her friend Julie is to let her see her A- papers when she knows Anna got a D. Anna can't help but smile at Sandy.
"I guess I'll just take my own test," she says. "I think you'd have a hard time passing for Anna Hsu anyway. Unless you're planning to wear a dress."
"Then there's the whole Asian thing," Ignacio says.
Sandy holds his hair back and tilts his chin towards Anna. "You don't think I could look a little bit Chinese?"
The van shakes for a moment while the driver's door opens and a guy-who Anna is pretty sure is named Doug-dives into the front seat with an armful of convenience store snacks.
"Did you buy me cigarettes?" Ignacio asks, seconds before a pack is tossed his way.
"You owe me," Doug says. He turns to look at Anna and quirks an eyebrow. "And you're that girl...whose name I can't remember."
"Anna," Anna says, at the same time Sandy says, "Don't be a dickhead."
Ignoring them both, Doug turns to tap the dash radio. "You guys turned this off?"
"Kenny Loggins came on," Ignacio says, like that explains everything. Doug shakes his head and turns the radio back on. A burst of static explodes from the front speakers, which slowly changes to the middle of a song Anna's been hearing everywhere lately.
"Is that the Stones?" she asks, as Doug tries to tune in a clearer sound.
"Yeah," Sandy says. He takes a gulp of his beer and wipes his mouth with his fingers. "Doesn't sound like them, huh? Sounds like disco or something."
"It's like no one knows how to rock anymore," Ignacio says sadly.
Anna shrugs. She likes the song okay-at least it's one she knows, and it seems like a decent enough soundtrack for sitting in Doug's van and drinking cheap beer.
Ignacio has settled back against the other side of the van and is trying to light a cigarette with a lighter that won't light. Doug is eating something out of a noisy foil bag in the front seat. Anna looks back over to Sandy. Their shoulders are touching, and she wonders if he's noticed.
"Don't you wish you were in New York sometimes?" Sandy asks. He crushes his empty can between his fingers and lets it fall to the floor. "That's where all the good music is happening. The punk scene, the underground."
"Yeah, I guess," Anna says. Maybe one day she'll tell Sandy that she doesn't really know anything about music, and that the garage-band show she met him at was the first one she'd ever gone to. "Usually I just want to be anywhere but here."
Sandy laughs. "You know, I hear that a lot."
"I don't want to end up like my sister. Moving out and then living two blocks away from where we grew up..." She wraps both hands around her beer can. "I don't know what I want to do with my life but here, I'm already feeling...smothered." As she's staring down at her lap, Sandy reaches over to lay his fingers on her wrist.
"I know what you mean," he says.
She smiles and he smiles back, in that way she loves. When she feels herself start to blush, she looks down at their hands again. When she catches a glimpse of Sandy's watch, her stomach lurches.
"Is your watch fast?" she asks.
"I don't think so. Why?"
Anna swears under her breath. "It took longer than I thought to get over here. I better go."
"Anna, Anna," Ignacio says, making a 'tch' noise, blowing smoke out of the corner of his mouth. Anna's forgotten he was watching them. "You drink our beer and then you run away?"
"Maybe she's going to turn into a pumpkin?" Doug calls, without turning around. Anna rolls her eyes.
"Sorry," she says, to Sandy. She presses her half-full beer into his hand. "You can finish it, if you want. Bye, guys." She gets to her feet-which involves leaning way over so her head doesn't hit the ceiling-and pushes open one of the back doors.
No sooner have her boots hit the pavement when she hears a voice behind her and turns back around.
"Hey," Sandy says. He's hanging out the back door of the van, holding a single cigarette between his thumb and forefinger. "Ignacio wanted to know if you want a smoke."
"Oh, um...thanks," Anna says. When she takes it, Sandy lifts a lighter up for her, but she tucks the cigarette in her pocket instead. "For later, I think."
He flips the lighter between his fingers and offers it to her anyway. "There are a ton of them kicking around in the van."
"Thanks," she says, a little embarrassed to take it. Like he knows she doesn't have one of her own-isn't a real smoker, always bumming off friends. She tucks the lighter into her other pocket. "Well, okay, I guess I should..."
"Listen," Sandy says, "there's this show coming up at the Boardwalk this weekend. I know a couple of the bands playing and it should be really cool. Saturday night. You want to come?"
"Um, maybe!" She tries not to think about whether or not she'll still be grounded by then. If her parents are only worried about her homework, they might let her go out...of course she might need Dinah to cover for her again... "What time?"
"Nine or ten, maybe? They never start on time."
Anna frowns at a crash coming from inside the van followed by wild laughter from Doug and Ignacio. Sandy doesn't even blink.
"So..." Anna wraps a piece of hair around her finger. "Are your friends going too?"
"I was thinking we could go just you and me," Sandy says. "Oh, and your niece too, if you want to bring her."
Anna laughs; her face feels warm. "I don't think my sister wants me taking Angie to any more shows."
"So just us then. I mean, if you're coming."
"I'll be there," Anna says.
"Good," Sandy says.
She wants to stand there looking at him all night, but if she wants a chance of getting out on Saturday, she knows she should get back. "I'll call you," she says. Waving, she takes a couple steps backwards and almost trips over the curb. He waves back, and she has to resist the urge to skip all the way back to Dinah's.
So I'd done a POV shift in the first part but now that I think of it, that part almost seems like objective POV. So hopefully that wasn't too jarring?
And yeah, I might do more of this story. I kind of like these guys :)
hi_falootin
Story: Second Chances
Prompt: Blueberry Yogurt 6. alibi + Butterscotch + Sprinkles
Rating: PG
Word count: 2255
Notes: For some reason, this one wanted to be about Rayn's parents as teenagers :O So it's a bit like a standalone since I don't think anyone will be familiar with the characters.
"I need a favor," Anna says. With her sister covering for her, Anna slips out into the night to go...hang out in the back of a van?
Anna uses her key and walks inside without knocking. Dinah looks up from washing dishes in the kitchen when Anna kicks the door closed.
"I need a favor," Anna says.
Dinah makes a face at her sister. "Hello to you too."
Ignoring that, Anna steps into the kitchen, frowns a the mini-blinds and then shuts them with a zwip! of the lift cord. Dinah raises her eyebrows.
"I think Mom and Dad might be watching me," Anna says, peering out between the slats.
Dinah looks alarmed. "You can see in my window from the house?"
"Only sort of." Satisfied, Anna lets the blinds snap closed again. "So this favor, it's a very, very, small one..."
"What is it?"
"I'm grounded," Anna said. "But I need to meet someone tonight, so I told Mom that I was coming over here cause you wanted me to help with Angie, but what I really need is to slip out the back door and for you to...pretend I didn't."
Dinah finishes drying her hands and then-after throwing the rag aside-sets them on her hips. "What did you do?"
"Nothing," Anna says, frowning down at the linoleum. "I mean, seriously, nothing. Just being my normal, stupid self." She winds a piece of hair around her finger. Dinah's still waiting for an answer. "I might be failing English."
"Oh, Anna-"
"It's okay." She waves it away. "Seriously, don't worry about it."
"Can you find a tutor or-"
"I said, don't," Anna says. She fiddles with a loose thread on the bottom of her jacket, avoiding Dinah's eyes. "Mom and Dad just think I'm not trying anyway...anyway, will you cover for me? I mean, just if Mom calls. I'll only be gone a little while."
If Dinah wants to push the tutor issue further, she manages to bite her tongue. "And what do I get in exchange?"
"Two free hours of childcare?"
Dinah laughs. "You wish. I'm not going to risk Mom's wrath for two measly hours. Let's make it four. And don't take Angie to another one of those rock concerts, okay? It can't be good for her ears."
"Fine, four. Greedy. Where is Angie anyway?"
"She's playing with her blocks." Dinah turns to call across the hall. "Being a good girl while Mommy finishes the dishes, right?"
"I'll say hi on my way out," Anna says. She slaps Dinah's shoulder affectionately. "Thanks, sis!"
"You'll be back soon, right?" Dinah glances at the kitchen clock, cat-shaped, with a tail ticking off the seconds. "Before nine?"
"Fine, before nine."
"Wait"-Dinah grabs her sleeve-"who are you meeting anyway that's so important?"
Anna opens her mouth and then hesitates.
"You have to tell me if I'm going to lie for you," Dinah warns. "Is it a boy?"
Anna shakes off her grip. "Yes," she says, "but no one you know. Seriously, Di, I'll tell you all about it when I get back, but I have to go"
"Does he go to your school? How old is he?" At Anna's annoyed expression, Dinah adds, "Well if I'm going to lie for you, I want to know you're not just running off with some psycho who want to cut you up into tiny pieces."
"He's not a psycho, okay? It'll be fine." Anna shakes her head. "You sound like Mom."
"I just-"
"You don't have to worry about me," Anna says. "Just worry about Angie."
With that, she slips out of the kitchen.
"Angie isn't the one meeting strange boys when she's supposed to be grounded!" Dinah calls after her, stepping out of the kitchen just in time to see Anna ruffle Angie's hair and bound out the back door.
Angie looks up at her mother from her place on a floor, a colored block in each of her hands.
"Right, Angie?" Dinah asks, kneeling down beside her. "Say, 'right, Mommy.'"
"Right!" Angie says brightly.
* * *
As Anna climbs into the back of the van, her Doc Martens slip against the bumper and Ignacio catches her arm to keep her from falling.
"You okay?" he asks, with his big stupid grin and she looks away, self-conscious.
"Thanks," she says, in what she hopes is a neutral tone. Ignacio will flirt with anyone, and the last thing Anna wants is to appear interested.
"Hey." Anna looks up at the sound of Sandy's voice; he's sitting on one of the make-shift benches, originally a crate of some kind. "I thought you weren't going to make it."
"Nah," Anna says, trying to sound flippant. "I just had to deal with my sister." She takes a seat next to Sandy. The bench is the right size for her, but he has to sit with his knees almost up to his chin.
"I'm glad you made it out," Sandy says. Anna nods. She loves his subtle, close-mouthed smile, so different from Ignacio's blatant flirting.
Ignacio nudges her leg with something cold and when she looks, she sees he's offering her a beer.
"Um, thanks," she says. Turning back to Sandy, she adds, "I can't stay too long. My parents are pissed at me."
"Yeah?" Sandy says. "Why?"
"Umm..." Anna opens the can and licks the foam from around the rim. "I'm failing some classes."
"Bummer," Sandy says.
It sounds genuine, Anna thinks, watching as he takes a beer from Ignacio too.
"It's okay," she says, "I think I'm going to drop out anyway." It's the first time she's said that outloud, the first time she's really allowed that idea to form into something that could be expressed to another human being. She takes a long swallow of her beer. She can sense both of them watching at her, although for the moment she's unwilling to look at even Sandy.
"Hey," Ignacio says, "if you do, maybe Sandy can take your GED for you."
Anna laughs without meaning to. "What?"
"It's kind of a side business," Sandy says. "It's surprising how much people will pay you to take a test for them."
Isn't that illegal? Anna wants to ask, but instead she asks, "Isn't it hard?"
"Nah, it's easy." Sandy shrugs. "It's just math and English. You could probably pass it right now."
"Don't believe him," Ignacio warns. "He thinks everything is easy."
"I'm fine at math," Anna says. "It's English I suck at." And history, she doesn't add-she's not officially failing history yet, but that's only because most of that grade is based on a final paper and test at the end of the semester. She tried to read the book, but it was like every sentence was written in Greek and she couldn't get through all the assigned pages unless she was willing to sit there for hours.
But she doesn't want Sandy to think she's an idiot at everything. "So you don't have to study?"
"You can," Sandy says. "I don't."
"Mr. Know-it-all," Ignacio sing-songs.
Sandy waves it away. "It's not like I've been out of school that long-a year's not enough to forget everything."
Anna wonders if he's embarrassed, the way her friend Julie is to let her see her A- papers when she knows Anna got a D. Anna can't help but smile at Sandy.
"I guess I'll just take my own test," she says. "I think you'd have a hard time passing for Anna Hsu anyway. Unless you're planning to wear a dress."
"Then there's the whole Asian thing," Ignacio says.
Sandy holds his hair back and tilts his chin towards Anna. "You don't think I could look a little bit Chinese?"
The van shakes for a moment while the driver's door opens and a guy-who Anna is pretty sure is named Doug-dives into the front seat with an armful of convenience store snacks.
"Did you buy me cigarettes?" Ignacio asks, seconds before a pack is tossed his way.
"You owe me," Doug says. He turns to look at Anna and quirks an eyebrow. "And you're that girl...whose name I can't remember."
"Anna," Anna says, at the same time Sandy says, "Don't be a dickhead."
Ignoring them both, Doug turns to tap the dash radio. "You guys turned this off?"
"Kenny Loggins came on," Ignacio says, like that explains everything. Doug shakes his head and turns the radio back on. A burst of static explodes from the front speakers, which slowly changes to the middle of a song Anna's been hearing everywhere lately.
"Is that the Stones?" she asks, as Doug tries to tune in a clearer sound.
"Yeah," Sandy says. He takes a gulp of his beer and wipes his mouth with his fingers. "Doesn't sound like them, huh? Sounds like disco or something."
"It's like no one knows how to rock anymore," Ignacio says sadly.
Anna shrugs. She likes the song okay-at least it's one she knows, and it seems like a decent enough soundtrack for sitting in Doug's van and drinking cheap beer.
Ignacio has settled back against the other side of the van and is trying to light a cigarette with a lighter that won't light. Doug is eating something out of a noisy foil bag in the front seat. Anna looks back over to Sandy. Their shoulders are touching, and she wonders if he's noticed.
"Don't you wish you were in New York sometimes?" Sandy asks. He crushes his empty can between his fingers and lets it fall to the floor. "That's where all the good music is happening. The punk scene, the underground."
"Yeah, I guess," Anna says. Maybe one day she'll tell Sandy that she doesn't really know anything about music, and that the garage-band show she met him at was the first one she'd ever gone to. "Usually I just want to be anywhere but here."
Sandy laughs. "You know, I hear that a lot."
"I don't want to end up like my sister. Moving out and then living two blocks away from where we grew up..." She wraps both hands around her beer can. "I don't know what I want to do with my life but here, I'm already feeling...smothered." As she's staring down at her lap, Sandy reaches over to lay his fingers on her wrist.
"I know what you mean," he says.
She smiles and he smiles back, in that way she loves. When she feels herself start to blush, she looks down at their hands again. When she catches a glimpse of Sandy's watch, her stomach lurches.
"Is your watch fast?" she asks.
"I don't think so. Why?"
Anna swears under her breath. "It took longer than I thought to get over here. I better go."
"Anna, Anna," Ignacio says, making a 'tch' noise, blowing smoke out of the corner of his mouth. Anna's forgotten he was watching them. "You drink our beer and then you run away?"
"Maybe she's going to turn into a pumpkin?" Doug calls, without turning around. Anna rolls her eyes.
"Sorry," she says, to Sandy. She presses her half-full beer into his hand. "You can finish it, if you want. Bye, guys." She gets to her feet-which involves leaning way over so her head doesn't hit the ceiling-and pushes open one of the back doors.
No sooner have her boots hit the pavement when she hears a voice behind her and turns back around.
"Hey," Sandy says. He's hanging out the back door of the van, holding a single cigarette between his thumb and forefinger. "Ignacio wanted to know if you want a smoke."
"Oh, um...thanks," Anna says. When she takes it, Sandy lifts a lighter up for her, but she tucks the cigarette in her pocket instead. "For later, I think."
He flips the lighter between his fingers and offers it to her anyway. "There are a ton of them kicking around in the van."
"Thanks," she says, a little embarrassed to take it. Like he knows she doesn't have one of her own-isn't a real smoker, always bumming off friends. She tucks the lighter into her other pocket. "Well, okay, I guess I should..."
"Listen," Sandy says, "there's this show coming up at the Boardwalk this weekend. I know a couple of the bands playing and it should be really cool. Saturday night. You want to come?"
"Um, maybe!" She tries not to think about whether or not she'll still be grounded by then. If her parents are only worried about her homework, they might let her go out...of course she might need Dinah to cover for her again... "What time?"
"Nine or ten, maybe? They never start on time."
Anna frowns at a crash coming from inside the van followed by wild laughter from Doug and Ignacio. Sandy doesn't even blink.
"So..." Anna wraps a piece of hair around her finger. "Are your friends going too?"
"I was thinking we could go just you and me," Sandy says. "Oh, and your niece too, if you want to bring her."
Anna laughs; her face feels warm. "I don't think my sister wants me taking Angie to any more shows."
"So just us then. I mean, if you're coming."
"I'll be there," Anna says.
"Good," Sandy says.
She wants to stand there looking at him all night, but if she wants a chance of getting out on Saturday, she knows she should get back. "I'll call you," she says. Waving, she takes a couple steps backwards and almost trips over the curb. He waves back, and she has to resist the urge to skip all the way back to Dinah's.
So I'd done a POV shift in the first part but now that I think of it, that part almost seems like objective POV. So hopefully that wasn't too jarring?
And yeah, I might do more of this story. I kind of like these guys :)