River Bound

stella

——————･❪ 🦦 ❫ ･—————— 

With a slouched back they sat in their hut, spinning in an office chair while their mother relentlessly attempted to form braids with their messy hair, and their even messier, impatiently restless movements.

"Calm down, sweets," their mother said, "the braids will turn all loose."

Stanley huffed and puffed in their disappointment and promptly stopped with the spinning, and instead dropped their head on the near kitchen table that their mother was standing by.

"What troubles you, my kindred spirit?"

"I want to be a lifeguard."

They could always tell their mother everything. No matter how out-of-the-world it was, they knew she would listen. However, this time, she didn't seem to have anything much to say beside a hum and a couple of brush strokes through their still-long, wavy hair.

"Nothing special about being a lifeguard, little star."

"What? Momma, they're the elites! Everything is special about being a lifeguard. Not everyone gets to be one, and... I don't."

"Oh, darling... You don't need to be a lifeguard to be special." This, they couldn't ignore. Their head shifted, turning clockwise towards their mother, unbraiding the braid she had taken fifteen minutes braiding. But their mother wasn't angry— if she was frustrated, she hid it perfectly well behind her calm countenance, forever a reliable stone. 

A shoulder to lean on, their mother was, keenly taking on any challenge that stood before her. It was exactly what made her as good a courier as she was. As a courier, her job was to roam around and communicate. She can't have been daft at seventeen, for her way with words was immaculate, so much so that not once has she sent a message that lead to a problematic encounter. Most receivers already knew her by name, famous as she was. Seine Rivers was well-known, and likely the best of the couriers that there were. Their father, a medic, was not the best of them all, as Mack took that position, but he should have been the best. Mack always needed his help.

"I named you Stella, not after a river, darling, but because you sparkle in the night, when all rivers grow dim."

The sentiment was nice, but in a typical teenager-manner, Stanley wasn't having it. "Sparkling in the night doesn't make me a lifeguard."

For their slim physique they could thank both their parents. A tall and lean father and a short but equally lean mother. Both of them were thin as sticks and looked like they couldn't wield a rolling pin if it were given to them. But both of them were strong as ever, muscles grown not in protein but in fiber, so lithe they looked, but they were as hard as stone, just like their personalities. "Baby, lifeguard is just a title. You're a guard, but that doesn't mean you won't jump in the water to save someone from drowning."

Stanley looked at the badge on their hip, then at their mother, and turned back towards the table to have their braids done (yet again). They said nothing, knowing very well that their mother was right, but their mind kept spinning around Aldan Costa and what he would say when he next saw them. It would certainly be quite the conversation that they were both looking forward to having, and not. They just wanted to be a lifeguard. They wanted the red vest, no matter how ugly it looked, so long as they got to wear it and symbolize what they all did.

Safety.