TSFS: The Other Side's Sacrifice

Fresh Beginnings

February 7th, 2018

7:30 am

Ashley slumped out of bed, stumbling to the bathroom, only for it to be occupied by Bianca. She banged on the door, talking loudly over the harsh water pressure that fell from the shower head.

"BIANCA! What the hell!?"

She waited, no voices filling her ears. Instead, she hears the door burst open. Bianca was in a robe, her hair went, and a load of steam exiting the bathroom. Behind her, the mirror was fogged up with steam, and water dripped from below her.

"I had to catch the showers before you and the girls woke up. House is gonna be a complete mad house." she says softly. The total tone in her voice, echoing off of the walls. Ashley scoffs at her, "sorry but last I checked this is MY house, and I'm just letting you stay here until Hazel moves out."

Bianca shifts in her weight, her moist hand on the knob of the door. Ashley studied the water droplets that dripped one by one from Bianca's brunette hair. "Well last I checked, I'm not like everyone else, and waits for Hazel to make her next move, just so you guys can follow in her footsteps. Or whatever and whenever the hell that is."

Her eyes widened, immediately regretting the words that escaped her mouth. She covered mouth with her damp hands. "Sorry--that came out the wrong way--"

"It's fine. You know I should probably go make something for the girls before I head out for work." and before Bianca could intrude on those plans, Ashley's back was already turned towards the kitchen.

She sighed, before closing the door to the bathroom, resuming her shower.

-

"KIRA, DELILAH, MAYA breakfast is ready!" Ashley screamed loudly down the hall, into the rooms that each of the girls slept in.

Ashley had just fried up some eggs, along with bacon and a series of juices placed in the fridge ready to be filled.

Soon, the girls came out, muggly tired. At least Kira did, looking half awake.

"Ugh, do I have to go to school? I'm a witch, I can just feed the knowledge to myself!" she says, sitting down at the table. Delilah laughs, pouring everyone a cup of orange juice from the fridge. I turn around to look at Kira, placing all of the freshly sizzled bacon on the plate to serve.

"Real funny Kira. But that's the easy way out. Plus, you can't just be in the house all day. That'll be boring." Ashley then places the plate of bacon and eggs on the table. The rest of them join together. "In the house all day?! Half the time I'm taken out of school because we're either being hunted down by yet another psycho who's out to get out, or because we're out looking for a pill that simply doesn't exist." she sassily says.

Maya shrugs, tilting her head up as she takes a sip of her juice. "She has a point, Ash."

Ashley rolls her eyes, shaking her head. "I don't care. Think of it as a new beginning. A fresh beginning!" Ashley says cheerfully, extending her arms out for effect.

"A fresh beginning? In the middle of the school year? I'm practically going to fail 8th grade if I miss any more days." Ashley nods quickly. "Which is why I need you in school." Delilah smirks to herself, listening quietly as she eats.

Kira scoffs, groaning in annoyance. "Ok well--it's 7:30. School started ten minutes ago."

Ashley shakes her head. "No it doesn't--" then she freezes mid bite. She whips her head at the clock, glaring at the clock.

7:39 am

"God damnit."

Maya snorts, Delilah almost chokes on her juice as Ashley shoves the rest of her food in her mouth, leaving no time to breath.

"Shit. Kira finish that up. Get dressed and brush your teeth. You can do your hair in the car." Ashley spills out of her mouth. The two girls try their best to contain themselves, as they watch Ashley in the far distance of the kitchen, washing off her plate.

"Fine," Kira sighs, and dives into the rest of her egg.

-

"Ready to go?"

The time was now 7:51, the two girls were about twenty minutes late. It didn't really matter if Kira was late, but it mattered to Ashley, because of the fact that she taught 6th grade science there.

Kira nods her head, throwing her black backpack on her back, and grabbing a scrunchie to prompt her hair up into after she brushed her black curls with.

"Ok thank god. Let's go." Ashley opens the front door, sharing one more glance at Delilah and Maya who were still there with their pajamas on with a smirk. Delilah has her slippers on, while Maya holds a cup of coffee in her right hand.

"Right because I don't want to have to call Eli to come back to pick you up because you got fired." Maya teases. She and Delilah burst out into giggles, wiping the spit that formed on the edges of their mouths.

Ashley rolls her eyes at the two immature girls. "Very funny, not gonna happen." She informs them.

"Imagine you and Zen got a matching job together. Oh my god, friendship goals." Delilah adds onto the joke. Maya leans forward, holding her chest from laughing, almost dropping the coffee that was still placed in her hands.

Ashley flips them the finger, leading Kira and her out of the house. The girls only laugh even more. "So much for new beginnings."

-

10:00 am

"Ugh," Jackson croaked out. He was lying down in an empty bed. A bed that was now hot by the sunny blinds that cracked through. He glanced muggly at the clock, the numbers "10 o' clock" reading back to him was enough to give him a heart attack.

He hurried out of the bedroom, into the living that only Bianca was sat in. Jackson stared at her, only for her to smile and wave at him. "It's about time you got up. You weren't even up late last night. Surprise you slept in as late as you did." she says, getting up. She walks over to him, latching onto him to give him a morning kiss.

Jackson laughed, pulling into her embrace, wrapping his hands around her waist as he pushed her closer to him. "I'm not sure why I slept in as long as I did. Guess it just felt needed." he smiled at her. She smiled warmly back at him.

"That's fine. You deserve it. Feels like we're all still trying to make up those sleeping hours from the hotel room in Ohio. Same goes for the rest of the group at Campsite Becker." Jackson follows Bianca into the kitchen, listening to her talk.

"Crystal Becker. That's a name I haven't heard in a while. Anyone ever know what happened to her?" He asks, watching as Bianca placed some buttered toast onto Jackson's plate that she had ever so nicely made for him. He smiled at her, thankful that she actually remembered about him.

Bianca shrugs, licking some of the butter off of her thumb. "Not sure. William told Hazel that Dorothy has had to give with the aftermath of Crystal losing Luna. Let's just say she's not taking it well." she sighs. Finally, she hands Jackson his plate of two pieces of buttered toast.

"Damn. Guess it really tore her up." he replies. Now it was Bianca's turn to follow Jackson to the kitchen table, where the two of them sat down to talk and catch up.

Bianca nods. "Well from what I heard the two were like dating. Though they broke up before Luna died for the first time. So a death from a spouse could really hurt. I would know..." her voice trails off.

Jackson stares intently at Bianca. Examining the frown that had now appeared on Bianca's face. He felt bad, and leaned in to kiss Bianca on the top of her face.

"Thank you for the toast."