Yay! Thank you! I've missed it so much! Most of the tops and annoying reminders on other threads were me. This is so good!

YAAY!

I will not be posting this frequently, but since it's the first day of RSS's life on CB, here you are..

—— 

They stumbled through customs and luggage collection, and they had just emerged from the building into the courtyard of harried travelers rushing about, trying to find their taxis and families.

“Felix!” someone shouted. Adri turned to see a tall, sinuous lady wrapped in a lavender scarf waving madly in their direction, a wide smile on her face.

“Natalie!” Papa called back, already plowing through the crowd towards her with utmost disregard for the rest of the airport’s patrons.

“That is Aunt Natalie, right?” Adri asked, squinting.

Maman didn’t answer. She was already running after Papa, her backpack bouncing behind her with every step. Adri sighed and followed them.

Standing next to Natalie was Uncle Thomas, little Rachel balanced on his shoulders, braids bobbing as she giggled at some unheard joke. Her older brother was not discernible from the distance, swallowed up by the crowd.

Adri recalled the last year’s Christmas card from them. The obligatory holiday correspondence was the main extent of the communication between the two families, and once Papa had placed it up on the mantle, Adri enjoyed peering through the small window into her cousins’ lives.

Jack was squished between Aunt Natalie and Uncle Thomas, smiling uncomfortably. Six-year-old Rachel, seated to her mother’s right, looked much more in her element, beaming gap-toothed at the camera.

“Look at that,” Papa had sighed, shaking his head and tapping Jack’s picture with an outstretched finger. “He looks like a girl. It’s a wonder he doesn’t get teased at school.”

“He has nicer hair than Adri does,” Maman said, amused. “You should take some tips from him, mou chou.”

“Very funny,” Adri grumbled.

Now, Papa was hugging Aunt Natalie, Uncle Thomas was talking Maman’s suitcase, Rachel was repeatedly saying “hello!” and Adri was face to face with Jack.

Gone were the lolling auburn corkscrew curls that Maman had praised back in  December, and it made such a drastic difference in his appearance that Adri scarcely recognized him.

It was shaved in the back and longer on the top, curls spilling over his forehead and into his eyes; balanced in that awkward stage between shaggy and short that just looked like he needed a haircut.

Adri and Jack stared at each other. The previous time they had seen each other they were barely more than toddlers, pudgy preschoolers who spent the entirety of the family reunion picking worms out of the muddy ground and squealing in delight. Adri wondered if Jack remembered that.

“Hi,” he said finally. “How was the flight?”

“Boring. Did you cut your hair?”

Jack shrugged. “Yeah. Dad wanted me to.”

Neither of them said anything else for some time. It was weird to be expected to know him, to talk to him, to be friends with him, simply because her dad and his mom were siblings. They were related, but they couldn’t relate.

Oh, I'm so glad you're picking this up again! Keep going, I can't wait to see where this is headed!

Maman put her hand on Adri’s shoulder and smiling genially at her cousin. “Jack, would you mind showing Adri around town? Helping her make some friends? She’s not so great at tha—”

“Maman,” Adri hissed.

“Oh, yeah!” Jack said, suddenly enthused. “That’ll be fun! There’s a lot of cool places and you can meet my friends! They’re nice, I promise. There’s Alex, he’s really smart and knows everything about computers…”

On the car ride from the airport to their house, Adri was happy to half-listen to Jack babble on about his friends and school and such, as it didn’t require her tired brain to form cognitive thought except for the well-placed “mm-hmm,” or “yeah, okay”.

Their car— an old gray Toyota minivan— comfortably held Uncle Thomas and Papa in the front and Maman, Aunt Natalie, and Rachel in the middle row. This left Adri and Jack the seats in the trunk, surrounded by a steadily swaying wall of luggage.

After a short while longer, they arrived at the house. The adults immediately rolled up their sleeves and began the adventure of suitcase-wrangling.

“We were planning on spending the rest of the day getting settled,” Maman explained. “But Natalie thinks we should go out for dinner later as a celebration. I think that’d be nice, if you’re up for it.”

“That’s fine,” Adri said. “I’m kind of tired, actually… I’m going to go lie down for a second.” And she only meant to. Jack pointed her to her room, and she lay down and closed her eyes and breathed. Just a minute or two, she told herself, to catch her head. Then she’d be able to unpack, to… to…

Adri awoke to the sound of someone singing. She blinked open her muzzy eyes, squinting through the harsh strips of light that had leaked through the blinds and were casting zig-zag patterns across her comforter, and took a few, yawning, moments to attempt to comprehend the current situation.

The voice wasn’t soft and peaceful, either— whoever the voice belonged to was belting out a terribly off-key rendition of Defying Gravity.

She didn’t recognize the room she was in at first. It was smaller and squarer than her bedroom at home. The bed she was lying in was a creamy color, speckled with lavender flowers, and to the right was a spindly-legged table with an alarm clock and a copy of the third Harry Potter book on it. Adri looked at the clock. It was 8:30.

“It’s too early for this,” Adri said to the ceiling. It didn’t answer.

She knew she wasn’t going to be going back to sleep, so she dragged herself out of bed. She had fallen asleep wearing the jeans and blue-striped top from the previous day, and upon waking up, realized how uncomfortable that had been. Her muscles were squeezed in the wrong places, and her joints jumped erratically as she stretched.

Someone, probably Papa, had brought her suitcase into the room, and it was tucked in the corner. After changing into a black t-shirt and a daisy print skirt, she tied her frizzy hair up into a messy ponytail without bothering to brush it, and prepared herself to face the day.

And whoever it was that was still singing. They had moved on to White Christmas. It was goddamn June.

Right outside her door was a hallway that led into the kitchen. Upon emerging into it, Adri was met with a very odd sight. Jack was sitting cross legged on the table, hair sleep-mussed, eating a pancake and laughing, presumably at the girl flipping said flat breakfast food at the stove. She was now cheerfully intoning Bohemian Rhapsody, and dancing in a manner reminiscent of a drunk Elvis Presley.

Jack caught side of Adri and waved. “Good morning! You slept for, like, a million hours!”

The girl stopped singing and turned to look.

Her dark-skinned face was sloping and angular, all pouty lips and poking cheekbones, with a beaky nose and jutting chin. Her kinky hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail at the nape of her neck, and Adri squirmed under the intensity of her judgemental gaze.

“Who the hell is this?” the stranger said. “What are you doing in Jack’s house?”

“I could ask the same.”

“This is my cousin,” Jack cut in, gesturing at Adri. “She just moved here from France and her family is living with us for a while. I told you about this, Theo, remember?”

“Ooh, France,” Theo said, raising an eyebrow, and twirling her spatula. “Fancy fancy.” She threw on a ridiculous, caricatured accent. “Bonjour! Paris! Baguette! Croissant! You do speak English, right?”

“I went to an English school,” Adri explained.

“Well, you get a pancake in that case. Catch!” She lobbed one at Adri, who only barely avoided dropping it on the ground.

“You didn’t answer my question,” Adri said, going to sit next to Jack.

“Oh,” he said around a mouthful of pancake. “Right. Theo’s my friend. She’s going to help me show you around and stuff and showed up earlier than necessary. Her internal clock is chronically early.” He grinned. “She makes great pancakes, though, so it’s all good.”

“Do your parents mind?”

“Mom loves her,” Jack said. “Dad thinks she’s a nuisance.”

“I agree,” Adri grumbled.

“No pancakes for meanies!” Theo sang.

OH. MY. GOSH. HOORAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I loved this so, so much when you were writing it and I'm so excited that they're back! I love the new plot!

~ (a very excited!) Starseeker 

I read the original not so long ago and I'm so happy this is back it's so AWESOME!

~Glampanda 

Abi! I came on to the CB for the first time in forever looking for this, and lo and behold, here it is! I've missed y'all, and I've missed this! Looking forward to reading it - maybe I'll stay on here. (Haha does anyone even remember me? Hi everyone!)