By the North Star | An Odesta Fanfic

Chapter Thirteen

In the weeks that followed, Mags and Bay did their best to keep Annie busy and cheer her up. Mags brought her along on her visits down to the Dunes, and asked for her help in the garden whenever she found Annie sitting in the backyard, staring silently out at the sea. Bay invited her over to his workshop almost every day, teaching her how to use the tools there or just letting her wander the aisles of trinkets. When Annie's birthday came around, the day wasn't forgotten. Not by Mags and Bay, anyway. The whole house was decorated for the occasion, and Mags spent hours that afternoon cooking all of Annie's favorite foods. The whole neighborhood was invited over for dinner that night, and nearly everyone showed up.

Before she knew it, Annie found herself at the head of a crowded table in Mags' dining room. Celeste was there, along with her whole family. Her husband, Luke, sat beside her, with a bright smile and even louder laugh. He and Bay had been cracking jokes across the table all night and Annie could hear little else of the dinner conversation. Ellie was perched on her dad's lap and her older brother Leo sat next to his mother, disappearing under the table just often enough to make Annie suspicious that Sammy was getting a feast of his own that night. Nelson was there too, and he looked just as grumpy with the whole evening as he had been when Annie first met him. His expression had hardly changed all night, but Annie was just starting to wonder whether he was always that way, and decided not to take any of his annoyance personally. Even Ryder had turned up, though he was sitting rather sullenly at one corner of the table and had hardly said a word.

"I really appreciate you all coming." Annie spoke up, as dinner came to an end. "You didn't have to take all this time out of your day, just for me."

"Of course we did," said Bay, and a few of the others nodded in agreement.

"You only turn twenty once, after all," Luke added.

Annie still wasn't sure she had ever made it past eighteen. Sometimes she still felt stuck there, back in that July when her whole life had gone sideways. But the world went on turning, and she didn't have much of a choice but to move with it.

"I'd never turn down a chance to have Mags' cooking," said Nelson, scraping his plate clean. Annie wasn't keeping count, but he must have said the same thing about a dozen times already.

"I don't get it often enough, these days," he went on. "Reminds me of the days when it was just Mags and I here in the Village. I used to get invited to meals all the time."

"You're still welcome over anytime, James, you know that."

But maybe Nelson just enjoyed making a fuss over things, because he went on complaining. "It's always so busy these days, with all the houses so full. There's always someone running up and down the street or making some ruckus." He shook his head. "Nothing like it used to be."

Ryder looked up from the corner. "It's no picnic being stuck in this neighborhood with you, either."

Nelson's eyes widened, and he looked both shocked and pleased to find someone just as annoyed as himself. "See what I mean?" he said, gesturing at Ryder. "All these young victors, no respect for anyone..."

Mags passed Ryder the last of the oysters and shot a look across the table at Nelson. "We love having you all here," she said. "There's so much more life in the Village compared to the old days."

"And not a minute of peace," said Nelson decidedly. He leaned over to talk to Annie. "Bay and Celeste moved in just a few years apart," he told her. "And that was the end of that. Bay was... well, you know how Bay was back then. But Celeste certainly kept us on our toes. Her and all of her sisters, that is. Never a moment of quiet once they moved in. And now, with all her kids..."