Threads and Strings

4. Challenge - January 2019

"Emi, I am not leaving you alone. I am here to hang out. Bring me to your work thing." Charles was persistent to stay with Emi for the remainder of the night. His curiosity was peaked after that phone call last night.

"No, you'll be bored. It's just a bunch of speech pathologists coming together to talk nerdy on their love for linguistics and their second language experiences. Relax here with Pabu. When was the last time you just stayed still?" Emi brushed him off.

"Last night when we fell asleep on the couch. You kicked me in the face," Charles responded, dramatically rubbing his cheek. Emi rolled her eyes and pushed him out of the way as she headed to the entry way.

As she placed her hand on the door handle, her doorbell rang. Charles was curious to see who her potential visitor was. "Oh god, no they didn't." Emi lightly hit her hand against the door. She opened the door and gave a distasteful look to her visitors. A man and a woman stood at her door step with bright eyes and a wide smiles. "You two look like Pennywise. I thought we were meeting at your place," Emi said in a confused tone.

"Well, when Kai told me that Charles was here and you did not want to bring him, we thought it best to do it here," the woman answered as she invited herself in. "Plus, we need an audience for this so you can get used to people seeing you perform." The woman lugged in a heavy bag as the man came in with filming equipment.

"Hi, I'm Charles, the one Emi wants nowhere near you two!" Charles said eagerly. Emi's annoyed demeanor returned as she pushed one of the bags towards Charles' feet. He gladly carried the bag to the living room and left her with a smug smile.

"Hello Charles, we've heard some great stories about you. I can't wait to hear more about Emi. I'm Amelia, but these two call me Lia. So feel free to call me that," Lia pushed the bag towards a door in between the kitchen and living room. "I'm guessing she hasn't shown you the basement she remodeled, since you're surprised to see us." Charles shook his head and followed Lia's lead.

As they all brought the bags and equipment downstairs, the man introduced himself to Charles, "Hey, I'm Kai. Glad we can finally meet you. I'm Lia's older brother. I take it she hasn't mentioned us to you."

Charles responded with shaking his hand, "She mentioned people she reconnected with from when she lived here. Nothing more than that."

"Perfect, we are definitely going to get some payback tonight." There was an unspoken alliance between Charles and Kai as they were directed by Lia to start the set up of the filming equipment.

Charles was astounded to find Emi's basement completely open with mirrors lining the wall and speakers hanging from the ceiling. "Whoa, Em, why haven't you shown me this? This is awesome!"

"Wasn't ready to, but I guess these two felt it best to show you for me." Emi continued setting up the equipment: lighting, keyboard, laptop, and mic stand. All the equipment was set up on the one wall that did not have mirrors, lessening the reflection of the lighting. Lia sat Emi down and began doing her makeup. A subtle neutral eyeshadow combination with lightly drawn stars to accent the eyeshadow.

Kai set up three outfits on the back wall of the film set. "So the three of you will be performing, I cannot wait to see this. The last time I was excited to see Emi as the center of attention, she was so focused on the game that I did not even exist."

Emi was about to respond with a comeback, but Lia stopped her, "Stop or I am going to hold your head in my arm." Charles gave Emi a wink as she could not talk back. Emi slowly raised her middle finger as Lia continued with glossing her lips.

"So I'm guessing this is Emi's outfit," Charles pointed to the pinafore with a lace top underneath and nude tights and platform heels. Emi shook her head.