"I swear, if I'm dying tonight because of you, I'm gonna haunt your ass so hard, Harrington!"
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah! I'm gonna go full Poltergeist and shit!"
"Then bring it, Graveswood."
"Challenge accepted."
***
In which after years of suppressing their...
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Chapter Ninety-Two: A Morning At Pennhurst
(Suzie, Do You Copy?, Pt. 3)
***
Her alarm beeping that she—thankfully—had managed to reset jolted Rowan out of sleep. Hand fumbling for the button, she gave up and just fired a small spark to shut it up. It did the trick.
Sitting up, Rowan groaned as she felt the sticky heat filling up her room as she took the sheets off, before she got out of her room and shuffled into the main space. There, she saw her aunt and Alistair already there, breakfast waiting.
"Morning, kid," Aunt Aco greeted. "How'd you sleep?"
"Great," Rowan answered as she slumped down and made herself a bowl of cereal. She ate quickly—her mornings at Pennhurst started at eight o' clock, and didn't finish until eleven. Then she only had two hours until her shift at Kingston Records, but she was used to it—a month of doing it had gotten her used to the routine.
Once she was doing, she telekinetically put her bowl in the sink and raced to get ready, showering and washing her hair and brushing her teeth at almost super-speed levels, before darting into her room and grabbing her "Pennhurst uniform"—an old blouse Aunt Aco let her keep, good jeans, and a belt. The only part of her usual style was her Docs.
After brushing her hair and applying some light makeup, Rowan rushed out of her room, nearly bowling into Alistair.
"Jesus, sorry Al!" she apologised, her brother mumbling, "It's fine."
Rowan frowned. She couldn't leave, not without apologising.
"Hey, Al," she began, and Alistair looked at her. He looked less mad than he did last night, which sent a spark of hope burning in Rowan. "I want to say I'm sorry. Eddie and I... we got into a bit of a fight, and I wanted to give him some space. That's why I called Val to see if she could pick you up. Still, I'm really sorry we weren't there to pick you up. I promise that won't happen again."
"You and Eddie got into a fight?" Alistair asked, eyes wide, more floored by that.
"Yeah," Rowan confirmed, biting her lip.
"Wow. Jesus, I... I didn't think you ever fought," Alistair admitted, still looking shocked.
"Well, we did, and I'm hoping that we can make up for it when I start my shift later," Rowan said, resisting the urge to run her hand through her hair. "But that doesn't matter. I should have just put that behind me and made true on us picking you up."
"It's okay. I should have expected something must have happened when you guys weren't there," Alistair said. He looked at her. "The apology's good, though."
"Good. We okay, squirt?" Rowan asked, extending her pinky out.
Alistair smiled. "We okay."
He linked his pinky with hers and they shook, before Rowan looked at the clock and grimaced.
