Admiring the Light

Ep 2

"Natalie, your little beast shit on my floor, come home now..." Natalie whispered the text to herself, and her eyes shifted up to see how her younger sister was doing with her food. "Hey, Sport, we might need to head home a little early. Sounds like Callie had another moment of vengeance." She joked while she rubbed her sweaty hands together. That dog hates her. She thought, she knew her pitbull's passive aggressive behavior was reasonable. She sees everything.

"We can bring out leftovers home." The teen carefully shut the white, styrofoam box over her half eaten stackburger, and tossed it onto the ripped up back seats of her crimson truck. "Good luck with the dragon, Nat." Alex chuckled, and the other 3 girls nodded in agreement. "If she uses slurs on you again, tell us in the group chat, documentation." Another one held up her Samsung.

"They're words, guys. Being called names by my mother is nothing compared to the possibility of her injuring Callie." Natalie spoke slowly, but she didn't rush Guinevere through her meal. She trusted God to keep her loyal companion safe until she could get home.

"I wish I had your confidence. I'd probably burst into tears if I experienced that kind of hate." Lola shuddered, and handed off her chicken nuggets to be boxed by her girlfriend. "Good luck, Natalie."

...

"Mom is just a little stubborn, stuck in her ways, you know. She'll come around eventually." Natalie smiled. She jammed her key into the ignition, and felt the truck rumble to life underneath her. "How'd school go for you, Sport?"

"Pretty good. That bio test kicked my ass though." Guinevere laughed. "Of course, it's AP, and if I bombed, I can only imagine what you scored." She joked as she went to tune the radio. The little screen had a crack in it, and any markings on the various buttons had rubbed off from years of usage.

"MCQs were easier than the FRQs, but I gave very insightful answers, as always." The older snickered. "AP Bio is easy, I have a solid C+. I don't tryhard in that class as much."

"That poor man, he's practically your homeroom teacher too, you're always in there making a scene." She joked. "But it's true! 42 is the answer to everything! Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is very scientific!" Natalie kept her eyes on the road, though she didn't have to drive far to get home. "We should probably be walking this, I'm only driving because I'm tired."

"And history of the world I guess was like an encyclopedia to you, Nat. This is why I don't ask you AP Euro questions." Guinevere rolled her eyes. "That video helped me cram essays in the span of hours. I could stab people for coins in Skywars, and I'd still be able to get essays finished."

"I didn't realize your name was Natalieblade." She teased. "What, you want me to make good, original content? That's kind of a high expectation for a Minecraft youtuber in school."

"Natalie says she's gonna teach me to drive, and she just gives me a video of someone doing tricks in a racing game. Even that is a high expectation." The younger sister took out her phone to check a text. "Mom wants to know where you are, she says you're taking a long time."

Natalie's face flushed into a tomato for a moment, before it rested back to her regular warm, tan color. "Tell her we're turning onto our street, that we were... talking about school." She stated, her words came out faster than usual as her mind raced. "That's not a lie, we talked about the bio test." She smiled, and took a breath as she pulled her beat up truck into the loose gravel they called a driveway.

A long, white Victorian mansion, the house needed to be cleaned, various patches of gray all over the siding. Tall, leafy green trees shaded their yard, and the setting October sun filtered through the leaves into the various windows. "Hey Nat...? When are you and Dad planning on putting up the Halloween decorations?" Guinevere asked as her eyes flicked around. "I mean, I'm not complaining, I hate Halloween. But it's 2 weeks away."