🌟sparks🌟 (matt sturniolo)

- 14 - hoodie -

everyone was seated around the kitchen table, eating pasta mary-lou had made for dinner. freyja was sat between madi and nic, with justin, matt, and chris across from them. mary-lou and jimmy both sat at the head at either end of the table. madi and nic were talking intently to justin about his latest poker competition, and chris and freyja were having an intense staring contest across the table. jimmy was watching the match, and mary lou was listening to justin. matt sat quietly, twirling his spaghetti around his bowl without any of it touching his mouth. he wasn't hungry. he knew he had to tell freyja soon, there just never seemed to be an opportunity.

"alright guys, we have an announcement," mary-lou said loudly, grabbing everyone's attention. chris and freyja immediately stopped their competition, madi, nic, and justin stopped talking, and matt lifted his head, still twirling the food around his bowl. jimmy and mary-lou shared a look of excitement before jimmy spoke up.

"we thought it might be nice to explore the dolomites a bit more. so, we are driving to bolanzo and staying there for the last week of the trip."

chris immediately jumped up and kissed his mom on the cheek. everyone started talking at once, excited about the prospect of going somewhere different.

"once you've finished eating, start packing because we leave at 10 am tomorrow," mary-lou tried to yell over the chatter of all the excited kids. everyone immediately put their leftover food in the bin and their bowls in the dishwasher, before rushing off into their rooms to pack.

when freyja reached the room she shared with nic and madi, there was shit everywhere. clothes littered the floor, beds were unmade, Pepsi cans littered the nightstands. madi stood by the wardrobe, taking clothes out of the drawers and throwing them on the floor. nic sat on his bed, trying to untangle a mess of phone and laptop cables. "what's going on?" freyja, asked confused. 

"packing," madi said simply as she flung a white baby tee out of a drawer, narrowly missing freyja's head.  freyja just sighed and walked over to her neat bed. she would say she was a reasonably neat person, not a neat freak, however, everything in her room was always in its place. but if this was how everyone else packed, freyja thought that maybe she was a neat freak after all.

she started by taking her clothes out of her wardrobe, and folding them all neatly. she packed her shoes in the bottom of her suitcase, and then the bulky clothes like her bomber jacket and flares on top. next came her t-shirts, sweaters, and warm clothes. finally, she moved on to putting the belongings in her nightstand neatly in her backpack, until the only thing left was her phone charger, book, and airpods. 

nic was still struggling to untangle the mess of cables. "here, let me do that. you go and pack your stuff," freyja said, taking the cables from his hands. nic smiled gratefully and moved to pack his backpack. madi had finally finished throwing her clothes around the room and was now messily folding them and shoving them in her suitcase. freyja sat on nic's bed and worked quickly to untangle the cables. when she was done, madi's phone and laptop charger sat to one side, nic's phone, laptop charger, and headphone charger sat on his bed, and freyja's laptop charger was safely in her backpack.

half an hour later, the room was relatively empty save for a few personal belongings on the nightstands and outfits for the next day laid out on the beds. madi, nic, and freyja's luggage sat near the door, and the three were sitting on freyja's bed playing a game of cards against humanity. freyja sat under the covers, with nic squished up next to her, and madi sat wrapped under a purple fuzzy blanket, facing them.

madi held the black card. "when I was a kid, we used to play cowboys and blank." 

nic immediately started giggling, and freyja elbowed him, grinning to herself. "im ready," nic yelped, and freyja nodded. they both handed their chosen cards to madi, who read nic's first.