Of Smoke and Dust 🖋

Chapter Ten: a field trip, a game in the woods, and the laughter of leonie

A/N: Hello there! Because I'm an idiot, and neglected to actually focus on my writing among the sea of schoolwork, this chapter is rather rushed - all written today, and because of that, much shorter than my usual chapters. It's an update regardless, though, and a I'll most likely go through and edit it later. Thank you all for understanding, and I hope you enjoy!

- Erica

CHAPTER TEN

Past

January 14th 2018

1:03 PM

Leonie Anne Quinn was a precocious little girl.

Sweet, people described her. Mischievous. Loving, caring, kind. A rule breaker, yes, but not so much that she got people hurt.

Right?

As Maia hurried after her best friend, the sun warming her cheeks and making her winter jacket seem uncomfortably hot, she wasn't quite sure she agreed.

They were nine years old. Well, Maia was nine - Leonie, with her January birthday, had just turned ten. They were supposed to be on a field trip with their class, learning about local wildlife from a pretty, blonde-haired volunteer who smelled of peppermints and passed out little candies for correct answers.

Key words: Supposed to.

Leonie, in all her ten-year-old wisdom, had decided that she was too good for such a boring, boring trip. She didn't want to learn about robins and spruce trees and various types of moss. It was dull. It was unnecessary.

And of course, once she'd decided this, she had to drag Maia into it.

Leonie was named for her grandmother Anne, who'd died when she was just six. Anne Prewett, Helen's mother, had been a sweet but quiet lady, full of traditional values and old-school manners. Perhaps Helen had hoped that by naming her daughter such, she too would learn to embody the traits Anne had held in such high value.

This was, as you now know, a futile hope.

Leonie was all sunshine and smiles; a girl who thought of rules as boundaries to be overcome, who guarded what belonged to her fiercely and never let go. Maia was lucky enough to be considered Leonie's, and it might have been the best thing to ever happen to her. For Maia, who had never really known anyone to really care for her - with the exception of her Aunt Vivian, who had always doted on her whenever she came to visit, as if realizing exactly what the attention-starved child needed - Leonie was a lifeline. Leonie was her family just as much as Maia was Leonie's. They fought, and clashed, and made up again, and it was lovely and beautiful and Maia's.

Maia and Leonie. Leonie and Maia.

Maia was nine. Leonie was ten.

They were supposed to be on a class field trip.

You might have gathered by now that they weren't.

Leonie had hung back as soon as the procession of one hundred or so kids began to march through the snow-blanketed woods, where sunlight gleamed off the icy ground and pine tree's branches bowed under the weight of their frozen burdens, occasionally allowing the snow piled atop them to slide free. The children ahead were having quite a bit of fun ducking off the path and pushing snow this way and that with mittened hands, but Leonie, looking around the wild forest, had a different idea.

She grabbed Maia's hand in her own and forced her friend to stop.

"What are you doing?" Maia turned to her in confusion. "Lee, we'll fall behind!"