Who Is She? | Jaz Anderson

• three •

Ayden laughed at Jaz. She bumped her hip with a twinkle in her eye.

"Stop that," Jaz sighed, reaching up to try to grab the tray from her girlfriend.

"Nope," Ayden said. She lifted the tray higher, clicking away on her heels to the table their friends sat at.

Jaz jogged after her, exasperated.

Ayden placed the trays down next to Sadie and Walt, sliding into her seat. Jaz sat down, squeezing her hand.

"I know you're nervous, but please don't do that again. I thought you were going to drop it."

"I have amazing balance," Ayden grumbled. "How else could I wear heels and go skipping around with Dad, Sadie, and Carter? I've never fallen once. Oh, and when we were trying to stop Set, I ended up wearing heels for the whole journey. I could never find a place to stop and pull out better shoes. I've started sticking a pair of sneakers into the Duat for emergencies."

"Don't have emergencies," Jaz said. "I'd rather you not go off on life threatening missions to save the world. Leave it to the adults for once."

Ayden smiled and tilted her head, leaning her cheek against Jaz's shoulder.

Jaz smiled back, twining their fingers together. Ayden picked up her sandwich with her left hand, eating contently until she heard a cough.

She rolled her eyes and asked, "What?" around her mouthful of food.

"You can do so much better than blondie over here."

"Like?"

"Me, obvi!" Drew shrieked.

Ayden and Jaz covered their ears at the shrill sound.

"Is this like the 'Walt can do better than Sadie' thing?" Carter wondered. "I really don't appreciate my sisters being your targets."

Ayden reached over and patted his shoulder. "I can deal with her."

She stood, towering over the Japanese girl. Ayden was taller than average, and she was wearing heels, which made her at least a head taller than Drew. Drew, also wearing heels, was a little below average height, making the height difference more drastic and kinda funny.

"What's so interesting about how I look?" Ayden asked. "Is it my hair? Or my eyes? Is it the fact that you just don't want Jaz to get me? Why do you want me of all people at this school? Wanna get the new girl? Hmm?"

Drew clenched her teeth. "No one at this table should be your friend. You're too good for them!"

"Oh, I'm sorry I have standards," Ayden hissed.

Drew glared at the jab.

"I'm so very sorry that you can't reach my standards. I guess you're too short — oh wait! No, that's not it; you're just too much of a spoiled, entitled brat to understand that you can't get everything all the time."

Drew sneered and stomped away.

"Exhibit a!" Ayden called after her.

"Jaz," Zia said slowly, "can I steal your girlfriend?"

"Nope," Jaz joked. "All mine. You get the less cool older brother."

Carter brushed off the offhand insult and watched Drew storm off. "You think she's gonna come back with reinforcements?"

"Maybe. Not today. If she does, I'll poke her with my staff and turn her into... a slug. That sounds lovely. Drew the slug," Ayden mused.

Her siblings and all of their significant others laughed. Ayden smiled and fixed her headband. School might not be that bad.

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Hey! It only took me like a month to write this. 🤦🏻‍♀️