A Taste of Normal - Chasing Normal, Arc 4

Scene 22: There's This Boy

"Why is she so set against my moving to the apprentice apartments?" Travis neatly sliced her waffles into small triangles. "Shouldn't she be glad I'm trying to be more independent?"

Lydia smiled softly. "You know, my nieces don't live in the apartments."

"Really? Why not?" Travis looked up from trying to glue her waffles back together with syrup. "I'm so ready to be out of here."

"The girls felt like they'd be on their own soon enough, so they chose to stay with their families a little bit longer." Lydia leaned over the counter. "If you ask me, Rose won't leave until Caleb goes to school."

Travis leaned in. "Who's Caleb?"

"Her baby brother," Lydia winked, and went back to washing a pile of fruit. "Do you want strawberries or a peach today?"

"Peach is fine," Travis set down her fork a bit deliberately. "What's your other niece's name?"

"Gloria, after my late mother."

"That's sweet," Travis hopped off the chair and then paused. "I know I said I'd meet them..."

Lydia handed her a lunchbox. "When you have time."

"Thanks," Travis drooped. She hadn't told the housekeeper yet what was going on with Will and Melinda, but the woman seemed to know when something was amiss. Just like Oma.

==

Lunchtime was starting to remind Travis of the books she'd sworn off reading. Will wouldn't look at her. Melinda's table was full. Travis debated eating in a stairwell.

"Looking for a seat?"

The lunchbox clanged against her leg as she turned. "Hey, Nigel."

"Melinda playing Queen of the Apprentices?"

"Does she do that?" Travis had thought Melinda was starting to remind her of the characters she didn't much like in her books.

Nigel laughed. "Don't worry about it. She'll brood for a few days. Someone else will screw up, and you'll be her favorite again."

Travis could feel her skin crawling. "Is that a good thing?"

Nigel laughed again. "You're going to be okay." He nudged her and then started into the lunchroom. "Come sit with us."

Travis walked quickly to keep up, "Who's 'us'?"

"It's just me and my brother. Ever since Queen Melinda booted me from her table last fall, Noel and I have started eating together. It's kind of nice, you know. It's the only time we get to see each other."

"I thought you said he was your brother." Travis set her lunchbox down at the indicated seat.

"He is." He sat down. "Noel, this is Travis. Travis, this is my brother Noel."

Noel's mouth was full, but he waved.

Travis smiled and started unpacking her lunch. "It seems like there are a lot of people related to each other here."

Nigel smirked. "You're one to talk."

"I always thought I was here because I grew up around this. How did you both get into working on interactives?"

Noel swallowed, "We were trying to escape our parents." He looked to his brother, who nearly snorted a bite of carrot. "It was just easier to band together and create our own worlds."

"So, what do you do?" Travis asked, taking a sip of the fruity tea Lydia had packed for her.

"I'm a writer. I help create the stories the interactors perform."

"Oh. So, you would write stories, and Nigel would animate them?"

"Something like that," Nigel had recovered.

"That's so cool! So, why aren't you producing your own projects?"

"There's better money in working for a studio," Noel responded.

"And experience," Nigel added.

"And experience," Noel agreed. "So, your mom is an interactor and you're an animator. Did you spend a lot of time drawing her growing up?"

"I spent a lot of time avoiding her growing up." The brothers laughed. People at the nearby tables glared at them, and they both calmed their laughter down to mere snickering. "But I've always loved to draw. I actually did a lot of technical art in intermediate school."

"Cool!" The brothers said together. Travis laughed and shook her head.

"You're pretty cool. You should come hang out some time," Noel nibbled on a celery stick.

"She has been hanging out. You need to take time from your busy girl-chasing schedule to hang out." Nigel glared at his brother.

Noel looked at Travis carefully. "She's cute. I might just do that." Travis could feel her cheeks warm.

Nigel rolled his eyes, "Jerk."

Noel smirked and rose from the table, "See you later, loser."

"Later." Nigel waved.

Travis finished the last bite of her peach, "You two are close."

"Yeah. Really, we're best friends, but kids ally better than grown-ups."

"Oh?"

"Yeah," Nigel looked back toward his departed brother. "You ready to go back?"

"Sure," Travis replied uncertainly.