Capturing Ella

Chapter 13 - Joe

Hello! The photos on top are just to show how muddy you can get at the event you're doing (featuring me - the very muddy one, and my friend Jodie, the one who isn't very muddy at all). I decided, like Ella did, to belly flop the mud and get as muddy as I can and was, therefore, washing mud out of my hair.

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'How did you find it working with Ella, then?' Jake asked me as we sat by the finishing line, each one of us occupying one of the twins each. 

Amelia sat in my lap, half asleep but half fascinating by the ever moving world we were in. It was very hard to get her to settle down when we were outside, as her eyes did not stop darting around to everything that moved. And considering some of the attractions here were from a funfair I just accepted she would be a lively baby to babysit during the race. All the girls started about ten or fifteen minutes ago, and no one was to show yet.

'I didn't really do much,' I simply said, kissing Amelia on the head as she grabbed my finger.

'Yeah, I think she did enough talking for both of you.'

'How did she teach herself to read lies like that?'

'She's had chronic insomnia since she was 12 – she can only sleep for one whole cycle which is 90 minutes, maybe. She has most of the night free – either to study, to work or to do whatever the Hell she wants to. She's always been interested in psychology and why people act like they do and she wanted to know how people lie. I mean, she's been living under a lie all her life. Ever since after the crash she's been very sensitive to emotions. She could pick up when people were lying to her since she was about six. It's just developed on from there I guess.'

Jeez – she sounded way more intellectual than I could ever be. I couldn't really focus at school, finding it hard to do my own work. I always tried to split the homework's between Jason and myself, but ended up copying from his homework the day or even lesson before it was due in. Yeah, I was one of those. But the fact that she would stay up for the majority of the night researching into things such as the muscles in the face and the combination of muscle contractions to create human emotions and then learn them off by heart and be able to detect them for only a fragment of a second took serious skill. She was obviously born to be a spy or detective, or whatever the Hell she actually does in the FBI and Maui.

Amelia made a noise that sounded like she was going to cry, so I quickly grabbed her favourite toy duck and started moving it in front of her, making weird little noises as I made it dance in front of her. She laughed slightly, chubby arms reaching to get the toy. I passed it to her and she settled back down happily, watching all the moving people and flashing lights.

'I never thought you would be the good one with kids in the family,' Jake admitted and I realised he must have watched the entire act. Isla, who had drifted off, was then placed back into the car seat and tucked in. Just Amelia who was up, then.

'Who did you think showed serious promise?' I asked, rather than deny it. My gift came in very handy when it came to persuading the twins to sleep, or making them completely forget the thing that scared them or made them sad for no reason. I didn't want my nieces to be upset – it seemed a fairly equal ethical rights consideration.

'Carly, obviously.' Jake said, and I nodded. The oldest member (technically) of our siblings was the only girl in the family. 'Alfie never showed any good signs or knowing how to react, really.' Alfie was Carly's twin brother, born a day after her.

'So Carly was a yes, Alfie was a no. Randy would definitely be a no.'

'Bloody hell, he's so up on the "no" list I haven't let him hold them yet.'

Randy was the third eldest in the family and was a serious alcoholic. I can't remember the last time I saw him sober. My family have tried their best to help him and I even went to the extent of knocking myself unconscious to remove the thoughts of all alcohol in his mind – but he just started the habit anew. Jake, having turned over a new leaf when he met Leannah, warned Randy when he told him that his wife was pregnant, he would never see his nieces if he was drunk, was firm to his word. When the family came to visit when the twins were in hospital, Jake simply escorted Randy out of the ward when he appeared with a bottle of Southern Comfort in his unwashed blazer pocket.

'What about Rian?'

'Hmm, it kind of flickered between yes and no. One second, he was very maternal and caring and the next second he seemed to distance himself greatly between himself and kids. So for now, I would say maybe not. Quinn was always a yes. You were a flickering as well – but now you're definitely a yes. Who knew you would be good with kids?' He said, as Amelia finally drifted off again. I gently cradled the kid, putting her in the other car seat and then the blanket over her.

'Here they come,' I told Jake, as the first person crossed the line. They didn't seem too muddy, and I recognise the person as Sicca. A middle aged woman who was very serious about her fitness and her ability. Not only that, her gift allowed her to be good at fitness. It wasn't a surprise she was first.

We watched the people trail in after then, and about fifteen or so people later, we heard laughter from the top of the slide. Everyone who had run in were on their own, obviously running it for the fitness part rather than the laughter part. However, the guffaw we heard from the slide was from a group and we turned the attention there. From here, I could see three people sitting at the top of the slide all in matching Hawaiian gear and knew exactly who there were; Ella and her friends. Her "friends", who I researched, were indeed the younger three Benedict's Soulfinder's. One was Ella's sister in law; the other one was Ella's sister in law to be and the smallest blonde one was just dating the youngest. As we watched, the smallest blonde one climbed over the top and sat down, and they all slid down the slide together and we even heard one of them swearing as they got covered with another bucket of mud at the bottom.

All four of them were covered in mud, but Ella was the worst. From her toes to shoulders, she was completely covered with only fragments showing of the skin or clothes below where it had flaked off. The hula skirt was lost along the way, and her face had flakes of mud and she beamed such a grin I could practically feel the endorphins being released. They all ran across the finish line together, laughing every step of the way and I grinned just watching them.

'You have such a crush on Ella,' Jake simply said, watching me rather than the mud popsicles on display. I just shook my head and remained quiet. 'Don't worry; I think we all have at one point or another. There's something about her that you either hate her, love her or you're her best friend. Thankfully for me, it's the latter. For you... you just have to wait.' Jake joked.

With great sadness, I watched as the girls posed for a few photos with various photographers, before they got hosed down, and Michael handed them their towels before they made their way back to their care, leaving me to decide what Jake had told me.

Be her best friend.

Love her.

Hate her.

The choice to me was crystal clear.