Who Is She? | Jaz Anderson

• four •

"Ayden!" Sadie pounded on Ayden's bedroom door. "We're all gathering in the Great Room! It's movie night!"

Ayden sighed. "I'll be right down."

Her sisters footsteps padded away and she tied her hair up in a precarious bun. Her blue strands were looser than her actual hair, and it was just enough that she could just tug them out from the elastic. Ayden pulled on her pajama shirt over her sports bra and slipped on her moccasins before padding out of her room, grabbing her glasses and sliding them up her nose.

"Huh," a voice said behind her. "You look different without makeup."

Ayden spun around, bringing her hands up en garde. "Oh," she flushed. "You startled me."

Jaz wore a pink hoodie and gray and pink checkered pajama pants. Her hair was combed out down her back and Ayden fought the urge to run her hand through it.

Jaz grinned. "I seem to do that a lot, don't I?"

Ayden shrugged, still red faced. She rubbed her cheeks with her palms and then held her hand to Jaz. Her girlfriend took it joyfully and they wandered down the stair together. Almost everyone was there and there was a collection of movies in front of them. Ayden smiled, figuring out where the tradition originated from.

"So," she said, "how often do you do this?"

"Once a month," Sadie said clapping. "Felix! There you are! Come sit down. We had five movies to choose from. Cinderella, Alvin and the Chipmunks, The Sorcerer's Stone, Enchanted, or Ella Enchanted."

"I vote Ella Enchanted!" Ayden announced loudly. There were several agreements, but Felix, Sean, and Julian voted for Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Eventually, it came down between Ella Enchanted and The Sorcerer's Stone.

Ayden stayed quiet this time, as votes went around. But she pumped her fist when her vote was the deciding.

"I think we all know mine," she gloated.

Carter cringed. "Sadie learned from you, didn't she?"

"Oh, don't act all high and mighty, Bird-Head. I learned it from you."

Several laughs echoes through the room and Carter turned away pettily. He joined the laughter a moment later and Sadie started the movie.

Ayden felt herself drifting off on Jaz's chest slowly, but she didn't bother to fight it, snoring within the first hour of the film.

Hey, at least she was happy.

But of course, it didn't last. The spell in the Great Room broke when Amos stepped through a swirling gate of sand. Ayden shot awake, staring at her uncle.

"Children! There you are." He kissed his nieces' foreheads and patted Carter's head, then stepped back and beckoned for the three to follow him. Despite his obvious intentions for only the Kane siblings to follow him, their significant others trailed behind as well.

"Ayden," Amos said quietly, "we checked the books recently, to call the second-most powerful magician to the First Nome, and I was scanning for your name, just to check, and your name has moved up."

Ayden paled. "What number?"

"From sixty-eighth to forty-first."

"Oh my gods," she breathed. "And Carter and Sadie?"

"Carter is one hundred and eighty-fifth and Sadie is one hundred and thirty."

"Oh my gods," the siblings breathed together. Almost simultaneously, all three of them passed out, crumpling into the arms of their significant other.

🪄⛲️

Ooh...