Since when did you call me sweet little? (First Kill)

Chapter 1: Mamma-Mia

     

  After Oliver left, everything felt different and everyone in the house felt off, even Elinor. It was kind of shocking to Juliette, to see her big sister, her cool, powerful, back-talking, takes-no-prisoners, rules are merely suggestions, more confident than a white frat guy after two shots of watered down vodka-big sister, retreat.
   
  It wasn’t like they were super close anyways, with Elinor being a freshman in college and Juliette being barely in the 7th grade, even though she certainly did not meet the height requirement for it, they had never really bonded. Plus, it had always been Elinor and Oliver, sneaking out together, going to parties together, going to therapy together, doing everything together. Meanwhile Juliette opted to spend most of her time at the Wheelers, or at the very least with Ben, at least, once she was old enough to figure out that Elinor's attention was always going to be on what Oliver did, and the breadth of Olivers love for her consisted of rides over to Ben’s because Elinor never wanted to drive her. So even though it was shocking, Juliette figured she shouldn’t be that surprised, without Oliver to drive her and maybe sneak her candy way past dinner, Juliette never really interacted with her older siblings anyways.

    The first morning of spring break Juliette woke up not to her own blaringly loud version of the Mamma-Mia cover of Mamma-Mia, but to an unfamiliar hand on her shoulder shaking her awake.

    “Come on sweet little, it’s time to get up.” A decidedly not her mothers voice said in her ear. Also, who on earth called her sweet little?

    “Juliette.” The voice called again, in a sing-songy tone.

    Juliette rolled over to come face to face with “Elinor?

    “Good morning sweet little, I was thinking we go on an adventure today”

    “Mother and Father never said anything about an “adventure”

    "Well that’s because they don’t know” Elinor stood up and clapped her hands together. Weird. “Now, I picked out clothes for you, they’re in your bathroom, meet me downstairs in twenty.”

    As Elinor walked towards the door, all Juliette could do was stare at her sister in confusion, had Elinor ever said this many words to her unprompted before?

    Suddenly Elinor whipped around, her hair literally making its own sound effect. “Oh, and maybe do something about your hair.”

    Well, at least that last comment was very on brand Elinor, Juliette was starting to wonder if that was even really her sister.

    Juliette rolled out of bed and glanced at the clock, 8:30am, Jesus christ, who was up at 8:30 in the morning of their own volition? She made her way into her bathroom, and ran a brush through her, ok Elinor was right, messy hair. She then rushed through brushing her teeth and pulling on the outfit Elinor had laid out for her (did she seriously have to pick out Juliette's socks for her?). And suddenly it was 8:45, five minutes to get downstairs, so Juliette booked it.

    Now Juliette wasn’t scared of Elinor per say, but the idea of finding out what Elinor might do if Juliette took more than her twenty allotted minutes to get ready was slightly horrifying, hence her running down the stairs, and subsequently tripping on her untied shoelace. If there was one thing Juliette was, it was someone who did not go hiking, so what could anyone really have expected from her wearing hiking boots for the first time and a matching yellow sports bra(ish, honestly she usually stuck to t-shirts, so whatever Elinor decided to dress her in, Juliette wasn’t really sure what to call it) and leggings but a couple of legacy vampire worthy bruises quickly forming (and probably healing), on her torso and forehead.

    “Juliette!?” She heard Elinor call out from her suddenly very uncomfortable position at the bottom of the stairs. The concern in Elinor's voice was also fairly evident, and fairly forgein to Juliette’s ears. Maybe she had a concussion?

    “Down here.” Juliette called back, slightly too late.

    Elinor rushed from the kitchen to find her awkwardly sitting up on the floor.
   
  “Sweet little, how many times have we told you not to take the stairs too fast?” Who was we, and what was with the sweet little thing, seriously?

    Elinor leaned down, inspecting Juliettes face, and lifting Juliettes arms to get a good look at her torso. “Well, the bruises are already fading, but next time try to save the diving for the swimming pool.”

    “Yeah, I guess I just went down too fast or something.” Juliette said as she awkwardly stood up.

    Elinor just raised an eyebrow and wrapped her arm around Julliette's shoulder, pulling her towards the kitchen. This day just kept getting weirder and weirder.

    As they walked Juliette could feel Elinor's eyes on her, more so the top of her head, but still, she had never had this much of Elinor's attention at once, so of course Juliette felt like her face was on fire.

    “So, I was thinking,” Elinor said, effectively forcing Juliette down into a chair with a very southern breakfast style looking plate of pancakes in front of it. “We could go on a little hike today, not anything too big, although slightly more effort than the stairs.” At least the little quips let Juliette know that this was still her sister.

    “Umm, yeah, that sounds fun.” Juliette said, albeit hesitantly.

    “Good!” Elinor clapped her hands (again with the clapping?) “You eat, and I’ll get pack stuff into the car, then we can go.”

    A very perplexed Juliette sat eating her mystery pancakes as Elinor filled two giant water bottles with water, and one equally large one with something that even Juliette’s baby vamp senses could tell was blood. Lovely. There were also some snacks, and other random (read:hiking necessities) thrown into two suspiciously new looking backpacks. As Elinor walked out of the kitchen and towards the cars, Juliette scraped the remnants of food off her plate and into the trash, then rinsed off said plate.

    With a little time to herself to think, Juliette couldn’t help but wonder what was going on. For the past few months (since Oliver left) Elinor had just been coming and going as she pleased, not really paying attention to anything Juliette did or said to her. Juliette had even had to beg her parents for rides to Ben’s, since she didn’t have an older sibling around to annoy into submission anymore. Since she didn’t have Oliver to annoy into submission anymore. Since she didn’t have a big brother anymore. Seriously, they clearly knew where he went, all three of them, but no one would tell Juliette a thing, why wouldn’t they tell her-

    “Juliette, are you ready to go?” Elinor called from the doorway.

    “Yeah, um, let me just get my phone off the table and,...yeah” Juliette said, hoping Elinor didn't hear the frustration, or god the tears in her voice.

    “Ok sweet little, I’ll be outside.”
     Juliette grabbed her phone and rushed after her older sister, (not) ready for whatever the fuck was about to happen.

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