Admiring the Light

Ep 22

A perfect activity on Halloween night for her, nobody else, just her and her phone playing a game. She'd been embarrassed at the haunted house, but they'd played it for laughs.

The Halloween update would only last for another 10 minutes, she noticed. Ending her chance at getting the limited time characters for another year.

"Dammit-" Guinevere's finger went to end the match, one slip up at this level costed her the game. Pretty much midnight, she must've been playing for hours.

Swiping up from the bottom of her screen, she paused the Miley song she'd been listening to, that was definitely music coming from Natalie's room across the hall.

"Hah?!" What was the date- She couldn't just check from her phone.

"ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU!!"

Of course she was singing, thankfully this was a Saturday night. Midnight on November first, she should've been used to it by now.

"I DON'T ASK FOR MUCH THIS CHRI-" Headphones on, even if it brought a small smile, Guinevere thought it was too early. Jacklyn was probably up too, she could help.

Your phone: Natalie's playing Christmas music.

Jacklyn: CHRISTMASTIME IS HERE

Your phone: NO

She didn't feel annoyed, but she tossed her phone over onto her messy backpack anyway. "Blegh."

If anything, Christmas might give her opportunities to get out. Help Natalie.

"Christmas is in a month..." She needed sleep, a lot of it. Especially if she wanted to make it to this vet appointment. She'd taken the only slot they had, around 5:30 at night.

Hissing from the room across the hall, probably at Natalie. Never a good sign.

"Nightwhisper, come here!"

The black cat had a grumpy look on her face as she scrambled in, her hat messy on her head and her fur sticking up in random places. "Oh dear- you're a mess! What happened?"

Guinevere had never seen Night frightened before, something must have fallen on her, maybe. "Come here... come on, we'll go to sleep." She patted her sheets, inviting the cat closer. "You've got to go get some shots later... you've gotta be rested!"

Nightwhisper settled herself in at the end of the bed, her lids dropping into sleep. Natalie's sudden Christmas music must have startled her.

...

Bags of candy out on the table when she pushed open the front door, Natalie hurried over to look at the haul. "Holy crap- Mom??"

This must have been why Katherine hadn't gone to church. "Yes, Natalie?" She tightly smiled.

"Ah- damn, girl! You didn't have to go this hard!" Natalie smiled, for the first time in a while, she put her arms around her mother. "Thank you!"

"Mmph."

"Weeee! It's all Crunch too!" She bounced excitedly. "You think I don't know your favorites. I'm your mother, kid."

"Well if I'm being completely honest, you've never cared before, Mom...?"

"I cared so much. Then you got cancer on me." She chuckled sadly. "Your chemo wouldn't work after the first few treatments. I started drinking."

"Shit, that must've been-" She paused, tugging her arms around Katherine again. "Love you, Mom-"

"And after all that, you were still a little fucking rebel. After everything we went through." She huffed. "I guess that's where it all started."

"That's when you turned into... this?" Natalie took another good, long look at the woman in front of her, her own mother. "I'm sorry if I judged you when I was younger too... um..." A part of her knew she shouldn't let Katherine go, but holding on wouldn't do anything. "You're my mom... And I love you."

"Love you..." She avoided those big minty eyes, Natalie wondered how she was feeling. "I'm gonna be late for work... bye- Natalie-"

"Have a great day!" Even with the kindness, she got nothing back. Understandable, she thought, Katherine never reciprocated.

"Yo, Sport! Ima head out to my game around 2, if you wanna go out to eat, Sport, just come and tell me!"

"Your friends coming over or something? If y'all are going out to the diner before, sure I'll come."

Natalie hadn't been planning on inviting her little gang, but the idea sounded fun. "We wouldn't eat that much junk before a game, not even me." She paused. "I might hang with them after."

"Don't wanna get sick again?"

"Nah- last night around 11 I had a bloody nose. I wasn't up by choice." She sighed. "Not fun." She'd never had allergies before, but she could cope.

"I can make us lunch Natalie, if you want? There's crinkle cuts in the freezer." Guinevere offered.

"They're not as good out of the oven, though!" She shook her head, she's make her own meal. But, she'd probably eat them anyway, most fries were tasty. "I mean- I guess?"

"Well at least I'll be eating them, party pooper." She finally put her phone down look at her sister.

"You do that, Sport. But put on a frozen corn dog for me. I bought some state fair ones."

"Uh- sure, sure." Guinevere nodded with a forced smile. "Damn! What's with the sass, what are you looking at, Sport?"

"Oh! I- was thinking of learning to play something. Like the guitar or piano." She held up her phone.

"As like- an after school thing? Would they let a kid do that?" This sounded interesting, she didn't have the patience to learn something like that. Natalie's giant body barely fit at a piano.

"I'll talk to the music director, there's no reason why they wouldn't?"

"I mean, yeah! I say go for it, Sport." She gave a thumbs up, heading for the stairs to go up. "I'm gonna get changed before we do anything else."

...

Strange, not having Guinevere on the sidelines cheering for her. Actually, only her dad was really here, as Natalie's eyes scanned through the bleachers. Sure, Alexandra's parents, Lola's dad, but never her own parents.

"A variation of zones, there, there, and there-"

"Me?" One girl perked up to question what Lola said, but the look she got as everyone else on the team ran off to different spaces, that told her where she was supposed to go.

Natalie felt surprisingly tired, her head light for a moment before she returned for normal. "Ah-" She was the only one still, like in that lightheaded moment everything had skipped a minute in time. "Natalie!"

"Hah?" The ball launched right into her chest. "Master plan...?" But her feet did the work for her when her brain refused. "Natalie- NATALIE-" The voice calling to here no more than ringing, she sent the ball up and over, right into the net for three points.

"Holy crap- you made that?" Alexandra approached her, still staring at the swaying net. "It was- probably an unnecessary risk."

"Hell yeah, it wasn't necessary! I called you!" Caitlyn snapped as she ran over. "We could've scored two points instead of risking none!"

"But I landed it, didn't I, Kate? Trust me." Natalie smiled, backing behind Lola. "The three of you, we've got uh- 40 seconds on the clock. That's plenty of time."

"Yeah, we've got 40 seconds, plenty of time, guys." She teasingly repeated.

...

"Can I hold her?" Jacklun tapped her fingertips together, a smile on her face as she tried to pick Nightwhisper from the ground.

"You're not gonna get far, she's over 100 pounds." Guinevere leaned on the open door so her girlfriend and her cat could get inside. "Come on, inside, in-"

"I'm going, Gwen! I promise!" She laughed, gently kissing her friend, only for a moment. "Woah... woahhh- I uh- eheh-"

Guinevere hadn't realized this relationship had gotten that close. "By all accounts, this doesn't make sense."

"Kronk supremacy is so real." Jacklyn nudged the maine coon inside, her eyes shining.