Festive
Framing A Moose
Argetlam350
LovelyComplex
MurderVictim
Melissa
Aces Away
Vampiretwilight
Mmm… bread…
Chris awoke to the scent of delicious bakery aromas filling his nostrils. With a grunt he rolled over and glared at his phone to check the time. Shiiit, it was half passed get-the-fuck-up o’clock. Thankfully he had the forethought to pack his luggage before going to bed last night. Preparing for his mechanics exam these past few days and then actually taking it yesterday meant that all of his anxiety and stress funnelled into a slumber of hibernation-like proportions, and he fully expected that he would sleep in.
After going about his morning routine, albeit much faster than usual, he realized it was uncharacteristically quiet. Having Sami around for this past week had become a sort of routine, but something was off today. Chris went to the living room to check if he wasn’t the only one that almost snoozed the day away. The couch was empty and the bedding was neatly folded with a note on top of it. Scanning it, Chris shook his head knowingly. A clandestine departure in the middle of the night was not unlike Sami, and Chris knew that it probably meant that he would be showing up for the trip with a few extra bruises that he didn’t have the day before. It was fine… Sami was a tough dude, it takes one to know one, and Chris knew he’d come out on top of whatever shit he was getting into. Probably.
“Hey Ma—” he called out and was immediately cut off from his question by a knock at the door. “— I got it.” Chris said and rubbed his freshly showered hair with a towel before approaching the front door to open it.
Opposite the door stood the ever so fashionably dressed and seriously sleep-deprived ‘thing 2’ of the hapa duo. A loud yawn was the initial greeting Chris received before Chloé’s arms were quickly snaking around his waist into a warm hug a big contrast to the grumble that left her lips, “Say anything about my dark circles and I’ll kick your ass.”
Despite being on the petite size she packed a punch when she wasn’t messing around and gave Chris a more than friendly squeeze and let him go with a sweet coo, “You’re such a great hugger, kabiyak.” Chloé was more than familiar with the Reyes house and demonstrated it by slipping past Chris’ body to find the woman she was actually here for.
“Angelaaaa~!”
“Coco!” A warm, accented voice greeted from her place at the counter in the kitchen. She was packaging up some freshly baked goodness for them to take on their trip.
Chris had all the time to blink in surprise before Chloé flitted off to see his mom. This was his place in life, silver medal to his own mother. It was worth it for hugs like that though. Chloé was a babe even if she claimed to have dark circles, whatever the fuck that meant. “Hello to you too, sweets,” he said with a laugh under his breath and followed her to the kitchen. “What’s that smell, moms.”
“I make pandesal, so you and your friends have good breakfast.” Angela pointed to the cupboard above the fridge and looked at her son with that motherly smile that all moms put on before asking for something. “Anak, you get the jar for the jam, please.” She smiled at Chloé now, a different smile. “Mango jam, you like mango?”
Chloé leaned against the counter across from the busy woman, not daring to get in her way as the smell of the fresh rolls made her mouth water, “Smells really good, and yeah, mango is great! Can’t go wrong with anything you make anyways, Māmā.” Chloé bit her bottom lip for a moment fighting against the urge to repeat the question she had been asking Angela almost every time she saw her the past three weeks.
“Are you sure you’re okay with checking on Nainai? Chloé’s thoughts were stumbling out of her mouth before she had a chance to cut them off, “I feel kind of guilty about this all, leaving her here by herself.... Like I’m a bad granddaughter or something, it kept me up all night... if you couldn’t tell.” Chloé offered a humorless chuckle and shook her head at herself, “Sorry, I guess the whole staying up all night isn’t my jam.”
Maternal instinct taking over, Angela set her rolls down and stepped up to the teenage girl to pat her cheek softly. “The fact you worry means you are good granddaughter. Of course I don’t mind, I love Nainai. Don’t you worry about us old ladies, you have fun.” The woman, who could hardly be considered old, looked to her son now, who had an empty Ball jar in hand. “Anak, can you pack up the jam for me? I have to finish getting ready for work. You take this and have fun with your friends. Be good.” Angela’s gaze went back to Chloé, “You make sure Chrysler be’s good, okay?”
Chris winced at the use of his full name. Thus far, Chloé hadn’t followed suit in using it, hopefully that stayed the same. Otherwise… there’d be problems. Chris didn’t handle teasing well. “It’s not me you should worry about, moms.” he said with a smirk, scooping jam into a jar. “My stuff is all packed in my room, once this is set, I’m good to go, Clo.”
“Your mom is an angel.” Chloé stated as she pulled her baby into the garage. Even though the talk with Angela was brief, it had left her feeling lighter and showed in the way she zoomed across town, and how she was already out of the car and throwing open the garage door, a loud bang echoed into the kitchen and the smell of grandma’s “famous” dumplings wafted into the garage.
“IVYYYY!” Chloé’s shout was followed by a softer ‘ow’ as a loving smack met the side of her head.
“Aiya, qǐng wù dǎrǎo my daughter. Help finish Baozi, máfan de nǚhái.”
"Oh, it's okay... don't worry about it NaiNai," Ivy's voice suddenly rang out from behind the three. The young woman strode into the kitchen with a certain pep in her step; she'd been up for some time now, and had just finished getting dressed when she heard Chloé's car pull into the garage. Ivy was definitely a morning person, and despite having stayed up pretty late the night before, she woke up early that morning and went about getting ready without a problem. After giving the older woman a quick hug and kiss, Ivy turned to shoot a skeptical glance at her two friends. "Whoa, looks like you two got hit by a bus. And I mean that in a loving way. Didn't sleep too well?"
Chloé plopped the steaming basket full of dumplings down on the counter, much to Nainai’s dismay, with an exasperated sigh and nodded her head, “Thanks, V..” she deadpanned with a pout before she abandoned the basket to check her features in a small mirror hanging on a wall just outside the kitchen,“I couldn’t sleep at all. I already spilled my guts to Angela and you know how great she is... So, I’m feeling better, I just need to get over myself, nothing that won’t fix itself, ya know?”
“Huh?” Chris replied unintelligently to Ivy’s question. He ran a hand through his hair, which was air drying into it’s usual gravity-defying spikiness and tried to get a glimpse of his reflection. Did he look tired? “Nah, I slept great, actually. Better than I have in weeks… almost slept through Clo coming over.”
“Oh my handsome Nǚxù, Nǐ èle ma? You look shòu!” The elderly Zhang woman was quick on the attack as her dear son-in-law came into view. Nainai’s favorite pastime was doting on Chris and soon enough she was waving Chloé off to grab her things so she could force feed Chris and Ivy with the food she had made the night before.
“I’ll grab our stuff real quick, Ivy! Don’t let Nainai bully you two into eating things if you aren’t hungry! Nǎinai, Bié lǐ tāmen!” Chloé was calling between her light laughter as she disappeared.
“Bù…” Chris replied to Nainai, thinking deeply about his next words. He could speak pretty passable Tagalog, but he was only at the basics of learning Chinese… and mostly learning it out of respect for Chloé’s grandmother. “Bù…... wǒ méiyǒu... nǎinai”. No, he hadn’t eaten yet, and those dumplings smelled bomb as fuck. Chris happily took the food that was offered, nodding his head in thanks to Nainai. He then looked to Ivy now that Chloé was out of the room, “Give it to me straight, is there going to be any room for me in the back seat with how much she’s undoubtedly packed for this trip?”
Ivy didn't hesitate to accept the food that NaiNai offered; After all, when was she ever one to turn down good food? "Well... when combined with our things, and the groceries that I bought for the trip, I'd definitely say you have about a ninety percent chance of suffocating in the back seat. So good luck." And while Ivy was laughing as she spoke, she wasn't totally joking.
“I ‘spose I should help her pack it in then.” Chris responded with laughter. Taking another dumpling ‘for the road’ he walked off to help shlep said luggage and groceries into the car.
On cue Chloé appeared in full form, albeit a bit breathless, with two extra large sized suitcases, a duffle bag on each and a hiking backpack strapped around her chest. And topped off with a full beat, kept on the natural side since her t-shirt dress wasn’t anything glamorous, but those under eye bags had to go.
“Look! Only one suitcase… and a backpack annnd a duffle bag- but it’s progress!” Chloé flashed a proud smile and popped open the back of the family’s Model X, “They’re kinda heavy so lift with your legs, no blowing out backs until we’re on that... uh… bus?”
Chris looked at the suitcase doubtfully, squinting one eye. “Riiiight, just one suitcase. With the mass of an entire planet, no doubt.” He commented before taking the bags off of her hands and carting them out to the car. His assumption was correct. Before leaving the house, he thanked Nainai for the food and gave her a gentle squeeze of a hug. “Double decker camper bus, it’s dope. You’ll love it, trust me.” He explained to Chloé on his way out the door.
After hugging Chris, Nainai turned to her two girls and offered them a kind smile, pulling them into each of her arms, “Have fun, no worries. I’m fine here. Chunhua, hùxiāng zhùyì. I love you girls.” Chloé wrapped her arms around her grandmother and Ivy giving them both a warm squeeze, “We’ll always look out for each other. Wǒ ài nǐ nǎinai.”
"Of course we will, always." Ivy said as she returned their hugs. "You take care while we're gone!" Soon, the trio had piled back into Chloé's car and had begun their drive to the parking lot of Beverly Hills High. As expected, Ivy was the first to connect her phone to the aux cord, and she spent the first few minutes of their drive excitedly rambling about how she'd made a playlist for the road trip.
The drive to BHHS was about half an album’s worth of songs, expertly picked out by the passenger seat DJ, who finally had Chloé hyped and ready to travel the road with her best friends. Turning into the lot, the double-decker bus was definitely a sight to behold, it was very… AJ Tyler. While her eyes would usually be wandering to a certain boy in the group, they were glued on the familiar face of the cute blonde she had been slowly getting closer to.
“Is that Katie- no fucking way, I can’t believe she actually showed up.”
"Indeed it is..." Ivy said, a mischievous grin making its way to her lips. It was no secret that Katie and AJ didn't get along anymore, but when the young woman had called Ivy a few nights before asking for the road trip details, Ivy didn't hesitate to lay it all out for her. In fact, she'd encouraged the girl to tag along; it certainly wasn't unlike Ivy to try and push her friends back together. Hell, she'd been doing the same to Chloé and Val for as long as she could remember. "If AJ asks, it wasn't me who invited her."
“He won’t be hearing it from me, sis. I for one had no idea she was coming.” Chloé made ‘my-lip-are-sealed’ motion as she pulled the car into a parking spot and turned around to look at Chris with a bright smile, “Alright sweetheart, we’ll unpack the car so you can go put the moves on AJ to distract him from exploding.”
Chris looked deadpan at the two girls in the front seat of the car. Were they serious? “You’ve got to be shitting me…” Another glance at the white vehicle and the blonde girl who had exited from it was confirmation that they were, indeed, serious. “Women will be the death of me, on god…” He said with a deep sigh as he vaulted himself out of the overpacked back seat, dragging his single suitcase, pandesal, and toolbox along — just in case. Though, from the looks of things currently, it wouldn’t just be the vehicles that might need fixin’. “Don’t fret, Bumble, I’m here now!” he shouted to his best friend as he approached.
Chris awoke to the scent of delicious bakery aromas filling his nostrils. With a grunt he rolled over and glared at his phone to check the time. Shiiit, it was half passed get-the-fuck-up o’clock. Thankfully he had the forethought to pack his luggage before going to bed last night. Preparing for his mechanics exam these past few days and then actually taking it yesterday meant that all of his anxiety and stress funnelled into a slumber of hibernation-like proportions, and he fully expected that he would sleep in.
After going about his morning routine, albeit much faster than usual, he realized it was uncharacteristically quiet. Having Sami around for this past week had become a sort of routine, but something was off today. Chris went to the living room to check if he wasn’t the only one that almost snoozed the day away. The couch was empty and the bedding was neatly folded with a note on top of it. Scanning it, Chris shook his head knowingly. A clandestine departure in the middle of the night was not unlike Sami, and Chris knew that it probably meant that he would be showing up for the trip with a few extra bruises that he didn’t have the day before. It was fine… Sami was a tough dude, it takes one to know one, and Chris knew he’d come out on top of whatever shit he was getting into. Probably.
“Hey Ma—” he called out and was immediately cut off from his question by a knock at the door. “— I got it.” Chris said and rubbed his freshly showered hair with a towel before approaching the front door to open it.
Opposite the door stood the ever so fashionably dressed and seriously sleep-deprived ‘thing 2’ of the hapa duo. A loud yawn was the initial greeting Chris received before Chloé’s arms were quickly snaking around his waist into a warm hug a big contrast to the grumble that left her lips, “Say anything about my dark circles and I’ll kick your ass.”
Despite being on the petite size she packed a punch when she wasn’t messing around and gave Chris a more than friendly squeeze and let him go with a sweet coo, “You’re such a great hugger, kabiyak.” Chloé was more than familiar with the Reyes house and demonstrated it by slipping past Chris’ body to find the woman she was actually here for.
“Angelaaaa~!”
“Coco!” A warm, accented voice greeted from her place at the counter in the kitchen. She was packaging up some freshly baked goodness for them to take on their trip.
Chris had all the time to blink in surprise before Chloé flitted off to see his mom. This was his place in life, silver medal to his own mother. It was worth it for hugs like that though. Chloé was a babe even if she claimed to have dark circles, whatever the fuck that meant. “Hello to you too, sweets,” he said with a laugh under his breath and followed her to the kitchen. “What’s that smell, moms.”
“I make pandesal, so you and your friends have good breakfast.” Angela pointed to the cupboard above the fridge and looked at her son with that motherly smile that all moms put on before asking for something. “Anak, you get the jar for the jam, please.” She smiled at Chloé now, a different smile. “Mango jam, you like mango?”
Chloé leaned against the counter across from the busy woman, not daring to get in her way as the smell of the fresh rolls made her mouth water, “Smells really good, and yeah, mango is great! Can’t go wrong with anything you make anyways, Māmā.” Chloé bit her bottom lip for a moment fighting against the urge to repeat the question she had been asking Angela almost every time she saw her the past three weeks.
“Are you sure you’re okay with checking on Nainai? Chloé’s thoughts were stumbling out of her mouth before she had a chance to cut them off, “I feel kind of guilty about this all, leaving her here by herself.... Like I’m a bad granddaughter or something, it kept me up all night... if you couldn’t tell.” Chloé offered a humorless chuckle and shook her head at herself, “Sorry, I guess the whole staying up all night isn’t my jam.”
Maternal instinct taking over, Angela set her rolls down and stepped up to the teenage girl to pat her cheek softly. “The fact you worry means you are good granddaughter. Of course I don’t mind, I love Nainai. Don’t you worry about us old ladies, you have fun.” The woman, who could hardly be considered old, looked to her son now, who had an empty Ball jar in hand. “Anak, can you pack up the jam for me? I have to finish getting ready for work. You take this and have fun with your friends. Be good.” Angela’s gaze went back to Chloé, “You make sure Chrysler be’s good, okay?”
Chris winced at the use of his full name. Thus far, Chloé hadn’t followed suit in using it, hopefully that stayed the same. Otherwise… there’d be problems. Chris didn’t handle teasing well. “It’s not me you should worry about, moms.” he said with a smirk, scooping jam into a jar. “My stuff is all packed in my room, once this is set, I’m good to go, Clo.”
▅▅▅▅▅
“Your mom is an angel.” Chloé stated as she pulled her baby into the garage. Even though the talk with Angela was brief, it had left her feeling lighter and showed in the way she zoomed across town, and how she was already out of the car and throwing open the garage door, a loud bang echoed into the kitchen and the smell of grandma’s “famous” dumplings wafted into the garage.
“IVYYYY!” Chloé’s shout was followed by a softer ‘ow’ as a loving smack met the side of her head.
“Aiya, qǐng wù dǎrǎo my daughter. Help finish Baozi, máfan de nǚhái.”
"Oh, it's okay... don't worry about it NaiNai," Ivy's voice suddenly rang out from behind the three. The young woman strode into the kitchen with a certain pep in her step; she'd been up for some time now, and had just finished getting dressed when she heard Chloé's car pull into the garage. Ivy was definitely a morning person, and despite having stayed up pretty late the night before, she woke up early that morning and went about getting ready without a problem. After giving the older woman a quick hug and kiss, Ivy turned to shoot a skeptical glance at her two friends. "Whoa, looks like you two got hit by a bus. And I mean that in a loving way. Didn't sleep too well?"
Chloé plopped the steaming basket full of dumplings down on the counter, much to Nainai’s dismay, with an exasperated sigh and nodded her head, “Thanks, V..” she deadpanned with a pout before she abandoned the basket to check her features in a small mirror hanging on a wall just outside the kitchen,“I couldn’t sleep at all. I already spilled my guts to Angela and you know how great she is... So, I’m feeling better, I just need to get over myself, nothing that won’t fix itself, ya know?”
“Huh?” Chris replied unintelligently to Ivy’s question. He ran a hand through his hair, which was air drying into it’s usual gravity-defying spikiness and tried to get a glimpse of his reflection. Did he look tired? “Nah, I slept great, actually. Better than I have in weeks… almost slept through Clo coming over.”
“Oh my handsome Nǚxù, Nǐ èle ma? You look shòu!” The elderly Zhang woman was quick on the attack as her dear son-in-law came into view. Nainai’s favorite pastime was doting on Chris and soon enough she was waving Chloé off to grab her things so she could force feed Chris and Ivy with the food she had made the night before.
“I’ll grab our stuff real quick, Ivy! Don’t let Nainai bully you two into eating things if you aren’t hungry! Nǎinai, Bié lǐ tāmen!” Chloé was calling between her light laughter as she disappeared.
“Bù…” Chris replied to Nainai, thinking deeply about his next words. He could speak pretty passable Tagalog, but he was only at the basics of learning Chinese… and mostly learning it out of respect for Chloé’s grandmother. “Bù…... wǒ méiyǒu... nǎinai”. No, he hadn’t eaten yet, and those dumplings smelled bomb as fuck. Chris happily took the food that was offered, nodding his head in thanks to Nainai. He then looked to Ivy now that Chloé was out of the room, “Give it to me straight, is there going to be any room for me in the back seat with how much she’s undoubtedly packed for this trip?”
Ivy didn't hesitate to accept the food that NaiNai offered; After all, when was she ever one to turn down good food? "Well... when combined with our things, and the groceries that I bought for the trip, I'd definitely say you have about a ninety percent chance of suffocating in the back seat. So good luck." And while Ivy was laughing as she spoke, she wasn't totally joking.
“I ‘spose I should help her pack it in then.” Chris responded with laughter. Taking another dumpling ‘for the road’ he walked off to help shlep said luggage and groceries into the car.
On cue Chloé appeared in full form, albeit a bit breathless, with two extra large sized suitcases, a duffle bag on each and a hiking backpack strapped around her chest. And topped off with a full beat, kept on the natural side since her t-shirt dress wasn’t anything glamorous, but those under eye bags had to go.
“Look! Only one suitcase… and a backpack annnd a duffle bag- but it’s progress!” Chloé flashed a proud smile and popped open the back of the family’s Model X, “They’re kinda heavy so lift with your legs, no blowing out backs until we’re on that... uh… bus?”
Chris looked at the suitcase doubtfully, squinting one eye. “Riiiight, just one suitcase. With the mass of an entire planet, no doubt.” He commented before taking the bags off of her hands and carting them out to the car. His assumption was correct. Before leaving the house, he thanked Nainai for the food and gave her a gentle squeeze of a hug. “Double decker camper bus, it’s dope. You’ll love it, trust me.” He explained to Chloé on his way out the door.
After hugging Chris, Nainai turned to her two girls and offered them a kind smile, pulling them into each of her arms, “Have fun, no worries. I’m fine here. Chunhua, hùxiāng zhùyì. I love you girls.” Chloé wrapped her arms around her grandmother and Ivy giving them both a warm squeeze, “We’ll always look out for each other. Wǒ ài nǐ nǎinai.”
"Of course we will, always." Ivy said as she returned their hugs. "You take care while we're gone!" Soon, the trio had piled back into Chloé's car and had begun their drive to the parking lot of Beverly Hills High. As expected, Ivy was the first to connect her phone to the aux cord, and she spent the first few minutes of their drive excitedly rambling about how she'd made a playlist for the road trip.
The drive to BHHS was about half an album’s worth of songs, expertly picked out by the passenger seat DJ, who finally had Chloé hyped and ready to travel the road with her best friends. Turning into the lot, the double-decker bus was definitely a sight to behold, it was very… AJ Tyler. While her eyes would usually be wandering to a certain boy in the group, they were glued on the familiar face of the cute blonde she had been slowly getting closer to.
“Is that Katie- no fucking way, I can’t believe she actually showed up.”
"Indeed it is..." Ivy said, a mischievous grin making its way to her lips. It was no secret that Katie and AJ didn't get along anymore, but when the young woman had called Ivy a few nights before asking for the road trip details, Ivy didn't hesitate to lay it all out for her. In fact, she'd encouraged the girl to tag along; it certainly wasn't unlike Ivy to try and push her friends back together. Hell, she'd been doing the same to Chloé and Val for as long as she could remember. "If AJ asks, it wasn't me who invited her."
“He won’t be hearing it from me, sis. I for one had no idea she was coming.” Chloé made ‘my-lip-are-sealed’ motion as she pulled the car into a parking spot and turned around to look at Chris with a bright smile, “Alright sweetheart, we’ll unpack the car so you can go put the moves on AJ to distract him from exploding.”
Chris looked deadpan at the two girls in the front seat of the car. Were they serious? “You’ve got to be shitting me…” Another glance at the white vehicle and the blonde girl who had exited from it was confirmation that they were, indeed, serious. “Women will be the death of me, on god…” He said with a deep sigh as he vaulted himself out of the overpacked back seat, dragging his single suitcase, pandesal, and toolbox along — just in case. Though, from the looks of things currently, it wouldn’t just be the vehicles that might need fixin’. “Don’t fret, Bumble, I’m here now!” he shouted to his best friend as he approached.
