Fear & Delight

Chapter One

Laying on the sofa, staring at the ceiling, Julia squinted and opened her eye a few times, playing with the light streaming in through the garden door.
Due to how the education system had been set up in the Citadel of Ricks she was not a student; on top of that she could not go out and find work either because her name was not on the government register, meaning no one was allowed to legally employ her.

Frustrated Julia tilted her head to the side and stared at the television, she had already cleaned the house, put on the laundry and done the dishes – everything her father used to do before he got a job.
It actually sucked to be so without purpose that Jerry contributed more than her. It had even gotten to the point that she was pretty sure Rick and Beth respected him more than her right now.

Hearing someone at the mailbox Julia got to her feet and headed to the front door, the metal post-flap twanging every time it was lifted up and mail was pushed through.
"Ohh, mail's here." she gasped, rushing over and bundling up the letters into her hands. "Junk, junk, junk... Oooh, free scratch and sniff cologne." she listed off, reading the small print. "Achieve the bachelor in you. For Ricks." she uttered, scrapping away the thin layer of foil to sniff the scented panel. "Ooohh, mmm." Julia hummed, realising it even came with a tiny plastic sample bottle.

Certain she should get Rick to try it out when he was home Julia wandered into the garage and put Rick's mail on his work desk, along with the cologne.
Seeing what else there was she stood by the kitchen table, her hand casually sorting each letter onto a particular pile depending on who it was for.
"Dad, Mum... Morty, Morty... Mum." she mumbled, mild curiosity coming over her when she found another free sample in the form of a coupon. "Hand in at Jerry and Jerry's for your free shampoo tester kit." she uttered, deciding this might just be the ticket she needed to get her out of the house for a little while.

Since it had been a rather warm morning Julia decided to put on her denim short-shorts and her loose fitting tie-dyed summer shirt, of which hung off of her arms just below the shoulders and also stopped on the curve of her waist to cut across, revealing her navel. It was longer at the back than it was at the front and so covered her bum and stopped at the back of her knees. As per usual she wore her favourite black boots that went with just about everything she owned.

Locking the door behind herself Julia began to wander down the street, the sun beating down on her while a mild, pleasant breeze kept her cool. Now and again a Rick would stop to look at her from the open garage, her rainbow tie-dye shirt being pretty eye-catching in the otherwise empty streets.

Ever since the Jerry convention incident she had become a little more infamous than before, it did not help that whenever Morty brought his friends over they would stare at her as if they had never seen a girl before.
Actually, in some cases they would look at her the same way they eyed up a Jessica. She was pretty sure they had been telling their Ricks all about this strange, unfamiliar half-sister who lived on their street as well, and word of mouth travelled fast around here.

Finding the store shown on the back of the leaflet Julia wandered in and picked up the shampoo advertised on the coupon, her eyes glancing to the scratchcards behind the kiosk while the Jerry at the counter rung her up.
"Hey, can I get a number one?" she asked, rummaging about in her pockets to find some loose change.
"Have you got any ID?" he questioned, eyeing her up and down.

Pulling out her wallet the teen handed him her ID and then stood there as he scrutinised the hell out of it, his eyes flicking up and down as he went from her photo to her face and back.
Eventually he handed it back to her, mostly because the Rick stood behind her had began leaning out to the side to look at him with an annoyed stare, his six-pack of beer clinking together as he put it on the counter once she had moved out of the way with her scratchcard and free bottle of shampoo.