Elain let out a breath as her mismatched eyes looked to her phone, a text from a friend of hers at her old school, Rebecca Williams, asking how Elain was doing and if she had seen the news online recently. Elain hadn’t, nor did she want to.
She hissed a breath as she sat up when using her right arm unintentionally. The injury on her arm throbbed dully. For the briefest of moments she hoped that just due karma would fall on those who did this to her, but pushed it away. Thinking such ugly thoughts would do nothing for her current situation. For now, she just wanted no part of it to try and move on. Just thinking about it made her arm ache. She needed to get her mind off this.
Leaving her room, Elain made her way to the stairs only to stop when hearing a thumping sound coming from Kaya’s bedroom. Knocking on the door, Elain opened and peeked inside, seeing her baby sister dressed in dark blue overall jeans and a pink T-shirt, breathing hard, looking to be on the verge of tears.
Concern hit Elain as she frowned faintly. “Hey, Kaya, what’s wrong?”
The seven-year-old girl wiped her eyes with the back of her right arm. “Nothing!” she said. “My friends are just stupid! Really stupid! Chelsy is bragging about going to Disney World. She said she wanted to take me, but since I moved it’d be too expensive now! So, she’s taking Dean instead.”
Elain made a face in her head while remaining stoic, that Chelsy kid was one that she never liked Kaya hanging out with, a bad influence and rotten personality and had caused issues in the past to be the center of attention. She also recalled that Dean was a boy with cerebral palsy and needed a walker at times since he couldn’t stand for long periods without needing support or just to sit down, but other than that, he was like any other kid. “Well, do you think Dean would be unhappy that he took your place?”
Kaya shook her head. “She doesn’t even like Dean. Chelsy messaged me saying that he’s only coming so they can skip lines with his walker! When I told her that was bad and mean to do that to him, she responded with, “Yeah? What are you gonna do to stop me? You’re not here now to do anything.” with a stupid laughing gif.”
“And that’s why you're mad?”
“Yes!” Kaya snapped. “But it’s a lot of other things too! I hate that we moved, and I hate not having my friends here, but right now, I hate what Chelsy is doing to Dean more than anything!”
Elain moved to the phone that had been tossed onto the bed amidst the chaotic mess of her room. Thankfully her phone wasn’t damaged, and the text was still open.
Kaya looked at her older sister with confusion. “What are you doing, El?”
“Taking screenshots, I plan to send this to Chelsy’s mother,” she had the mother’s number because Elain babysat the kid a few times when Elain was short on cash. As she did so, she looked at Kaya. “Are you okay with that? She is your friend, after all.”
“No, she ain’t any more! Not after this!” Kaya snapped again. “I don’t like people who flaunt or do things like that to Dean! Their jerks and stupid and… and they’re dummies!”
Elain didn’t respond as she sent the screenshots to her own phone before forwarding it to Chelsy’s Mom with the caption: Your kid is at it again.
And the response was instant with a thank you and plans to handle it and talk with Dean’s parents. Possibly to either cancel the trip altogether or something else.
Not that it mattered right now.
“Tell you what, Kai, since we’re both in real crummy moods, why not go to the park and take out your anger on the monkey bars.” When Kaya didn’t answer, Elain added. “There’s an ice cream stand, too; I’ll buy you chocolate.”
Her cheeks puffed. “Finnnnne.” Then muttered loudly under her breath. “Better have sprinkles…”
Elain smiled, yet in the back of her mind, she was a bit concerned about Kaya’s remark on the move. She knew that this was life-changing for any kid, but Kaya seemed to be dealing with it well. Seemed to. And that bugged her.
When Mom gets home, I’ll try talking to her about Kaya. Elain thought as they made their way downstairs. She might be too tired, but I need to let her and Dad know. Since moving and setting everything up in the past week, both parents managed to find work relatively quickly in their respective fields, but given that their mother was a nurse, finding a job wouldn’t have been too hard, or an architect for that matter.
While their brother was preparing to apply to college well in advance, even though he had one more year of high school, knowing Nate, he just wanted to be ready for what he wanted to take. Nate wanted to be a doctor. That was his desire with how their Mom worked so hard when she studied and practiced being a nurse while raising three kids.
Mom’s a literal Queen and a Boss. Queen-Boss.
Did that sound cheesy to Elain? Yes. Was she going to change her thoughts on her Mom because of this cheesy way of thinking? Hell no.
Elain locked the door as they made their way down the street, with Elain glancing at the house across the road briefly, wondering how Amalie and her father were doing. After having an encounter with the police, her worry remained deep in her chest. The police didn’t suspect Alastor, did they? Yeah, what that woman did was horrible, but it’s not like he’d do something as wrong as killing her for it. That would be too insane.
But then that just seemed to be what came to Elain’s mind first.
Her experiences coloured her view of all police. It wasn’t a good thing, she knew that, but she would always assume the worst immediately after what happened with her own experiences. Her mismatched eyes fell to her right arm where the graph lay, covered by the long sleeve of her shirt. Before shaking her head, again, this was something she did not want to think about right now.
Elain and her sister walked past several families as they made their way to the nearby park. A lot of families were with their kids playing or enjoying just being with each other or others just being alone; in the midst of this, Elain recognized someone.
“Hi, Mr. Hilmarsson.” Elain said when she approached the bench where the man was reading a book.
He turned to them, a bright smile on his face. “Hello, Miss. Ortiz, it’s wonderful to see you again,” he paused, noticing something before looking to Kaya. “Why, hello there! You must be Miss. Ortiz’s little sister; you look so much like your mother.”
Kaya gave a big beaming smile, she always did like being compared to their mom. “Hi, my name’s Kaya. Are you the man that brought the pie over?”
“I am indeed. Did you enjoy it?” Kaya nodded, and Alastor chuckled. “Wonderful. Say, do you see that little girl in the flower skirt? Her name’s Amalie, she’s not only the same age as you, but she’s also my daughter. Why not go and see if she’d like to play with you on the swings?”
The idea of meeting a girl who might want to be friends brightened Kaya up as she made a bee-line for the swings where Amalie sat. only to jolt at Kaya jumping in her line of sight and saying. “Hi! My name’s Kaya. Want to play with me?” the other girl’s response equated to that of a startled kitten.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
And after a moment of Amalie glancing at her father and seeing Elain, she looked back to Kaya, and with a small smile, said. “Okay.”
“You seem troubled,” Alastor said as he watched his daughter now playing on the swing set with Kaya, his smile remaining as he did so. “Would you like to talk about it?”
Elain sat next to him, merely sitting in silence as the other parents and kids minded themselves before she finally spoke. “It’s… it’s just been an adjustment, living in this new place. A new country almost feels like an irony given that the U.S.A and Canada are neighbours but are so… different. It’s a bit… weird.”
“You’ll get used to it in time,” he says. “It was for me when I first immigrated here when I was much younger.”
She looked at him with a questioning stare. “Where did you live before?”
“I hopped around, England, and Ireland, but I mainly stayed in France. I visit my birthplace in Iceland before taking up roots here. I found myself truly loving it here, and I hope it will be the same for my daughter as well.”
“Were things okay after what happened with the Detectives?”
“Nothing else came of it, though I won’t be surprised if they do come back. Either with more questions about the woman or for other matters.”
Elain merely looked at him before looking back to Kaya chatting with Amalie. “Good, I hope it remains that way.” She then changed the topic. “The places you lived before; do you miss living there at all?”
“In a matter of speaking, France especially. The culinary arts were something I wish I could have brought with me. But, perhaps, one day, I’ll take Amalie there one day.”
“I think you’ve brought it with you,” Elain said. “It takes a lot of skill to make what you did, like with the pie. So, I think you brought a piece of France with you.”
“If you ever become interested, I’d be more than happy to teach you.” His gaze then quickly veered to Amalie as he spoke up with that smile on his face. “Amalie, be careful standing on the swings like that. I wouldn’t want you to fall.”
Amalie halted on the swing that she was standing on as Kaya stopped pushing, Amalie touched the gravel with her left foot to stop. “Sorry, Dad.”
“It’s fine. Just be careful, you two.” He then looked back to Elian. “You can join them if you want. No need to stay with me.”
“It’s okay,” she pushed her hair out of her face, which in turn revealed the injury on her shoulder where stitches peaked out of her shirt, but she didn’t seem to notice. “I can’t do anything physical until I’ve been allowed by the doctor.”
His smile faltered faintly.
She said with a bit of a laugh. “But that’s okay, gives me time just to think, you know?” she trailed off when Alastor said nothing as he merely continued to smile. As she turned away, her face felt warm. She was embarrassed about how she just handled that exchange.
“El,” Kaya called out from the swings. “Can Amalie and I get some ice cream?”
Grateful for this, Elain jumped up from her seat. “Yes!” only to then remember that Kaya included Amalie in that as well and looked to Alastor. “Is that ok with you?”
His smile became cheery. “I see no reason why not.” Elain then led the kids to a parked ice cream truck while Alastor remained where he was watching from a distance.
As the three returned, Elain handed Alastor a waffle cone. “I hope you’re okay with strawberry.”
He takes it from her while smiling brightly at her. It was almost more blinding than the summer sun. “Oh, that’s kind of you, thank you, Miss Ortiz.”
Then the four of them sat on the bench eating ice cream, Amalie sitting in between her father and Elain while Kaya was sitting on Elain’s other side. Eating in silence while watching other people. When Elain was done, she planned to clean up Kaya’s face with the napkins that Elain brought but paused when noticing her right hand shaking faintly.
Her right arm didn’t hurt, but still, there were faint tremors. She had done so little, and yet she had this reaction. Was it because of how she got up off her bed this morning?
“El, what’s wrong?” Kaya asked, looking up at her older sister with concern in her dark brown eyes.
“Hmm?” She said quickly with a smile. “I’m all right, what about you? How’s the ice cream? Were there enough sprinkles?” Elain was changing the topic; she didn’t want to worry her little sister about something that could very well be nothing.
“Yeah,” Kaya smiled brightly. “It’s really good!” her eyes then became sad even as her smile remained. “But… I just wish my friends were here.”
Elain looked at the kids playing. “Same here...” But she couldn’t manage to say anything else about it. So, before this silence became any longer than it already was, Elain spoke up. “Hey, when you’re done, want me to watch you climb the monkey bars? You’ve gotten faster at it, right? I can time you.”
Kaya’s eyes lit up as she smiled with a sprinkled-covered mouth. “Really?”
“Yeah,” Elain said with a smile. Pushing her thoughts about her arm away, she just wanted to act like nothing was wrong with her body, at least for a bit.
After Kaya finished, the girl rushed over to the fountain to clean her face, then came running back and grabbed Elain’s hand, yanking her to the monkey bars. Thankfully, her little sister grabbed the other arm and not the one with stitches and a graph.
“Alright, you ready, you climbing monster?” Elain asked as she pulled out her phone.
Kaya kicked off her shoes planting her feet firmly in the soft ground. “Yes!”
“Three…! Two…! One…! GO!”
Kaya took off like a shot, running as fast as she could and then quickly making her way up the monkey bars like it was nothing. And in no time, Kaya was standing at the top with her arms crossed and had a smile of pride.
The moment Kaya reached the top, Elain stopped the timer on her phone. “Congrats, Rápido Ardilla, you just broke your old time by at least two seconds!”
“Really?” Kaya says in the midst of her climbing down. “Let me see! Let me see!”
Seeing her little sister’s ecstatic smile when seeing her score. “See? You’ll be the new Miles Morales before you know it.”
Kaya made a sound of happiness as she kept looking at her time. “I want to show Amalie, can I?” when Elain nodded, Kaya took Elain’s phone and rushed over to Amalie and her father. “Hey, look at how fast I went.”
Amalie looked at the time. “Wow, that’s amazing Kaya.”
“How long have you been doing this?” Alastor asked.
“Since I was four! I’ve been doing exercises with El and Nate, oh that’s my older brother Nathan. But Ellie is waaay better. She’s even good at martial arts, like Katara from Avatar!”
Amalie looked a bit confused before looking at Elain. “Is she in the book that you were reading, Elain?”
“Oh no, Katara is in the show Avatar the Last Airbender. Have you ever seen it?” Amalie shook her head. “Well, I think it’d be something you like, even your Dad if he’s interested, I mean.”
Alastor shrugged as he smiled. “I’m always willing to try something new. And it does seem interesting. Amalie was talking a lot about the book you were reading to her as well. But I’m also interested to know what Kaya meant. You know how to fight?”
Elain suddenly felt a tad embarrassed. “Ah, well, kind of? It’s mainly self-defence, you know? I’m not that great. Besides, I can’t really do it right now.” Especially with my arm and shoulder the way they are now. “But besides that, Kaya has always been a bit of a climber, always able to move quickly. You should see her on a rock-climbing wall.”
“I’m the next Spider-Man!” Kaya says with confidence.
“No!” Elain turned to see a boy, about the same age as Kaya and Amalie with brown hair and eyes, with a slight tan to his white skin from being in the sun so much. “Girls can’t be Spider-Man! You dummy!”
Kaya frowned at him. “Girls can too, what about Spider-Gwen? She’s a girl!”
“You said Spider-Man, you can’t be him! You’re a girl!”
Oh boy… “Hey, kid, relax. Anyone can be any superhero if they want. Just as long as they don’t hurt anyone, and my sister isn’t hurting anyone, is she?”
The boy scowled. “That doesn’t matter, boys can’t be girls, and girls can’t be boys!”
Elain glanced at the kid and then looked to see if she could spot the boy’s parents but couldn’t see anyone who looked like the boy. They might be somewhere else. “Alright, look, kid, anyone can be anything they want, regardless of gender.”
“That still doesn’t change it!”
Stubborn kid. She thought.
“No!” Kaya snapped before Elain could say anything else. “You heard my sister! Anyone can be anything! And that means I can beat a boy any day of the week!”
“Oh yeah?” the boy demanded.
“Yeah!” Kaya snapped back. “Why don’t we put it to the test?”
“Kaya, wait!” Elain said but was completely ignored.
“What? Against you?” the boy asked.
Kaya looked at him, unimpressed. “Oh, what? You don’t think you could win against a girl outside of a video game?”
“I-I never said that!” the boy said, his face looking embarrassed. “Fine! Name it then!”
Kaya grinned and pointed to the monkey bars. “Whoever can get to the top of the monkey bars first wins!”
“Kaya!” Elian spoke up, causing Kaya to jump slightly in response. “I said wait. This isn’t a competition. You can’t just…”
“Three, two, one, go!” the boy said, and the two kids took off to the monkey bars.
“Wait!” Elain called out, extending her right arm only to wince from her shoulder. Ow, shit… she went closer to the monkey bars, just to keep a closer eye on the two in case something wrong. It was something she felt in her gut.
Ever since the incident, she tried to be far more aware of those around her, at least as much as Elain could.
And at that moment, a man called out. “Ryan! What are you doing?” it must have been the boy’s father, but that alone caused the kid to slip and fall back, unable to grab the bars, the way he was falling would hit his head or worse.
Elain reacted, rushing forwards to grab the boy, falling with him, protecting him from the ground with her body, but what she didn’t realize in the heat of the moment was how she fell as her right arm came in contact with the ground—followed by something tearing.