Previous Part:
Reading Into It | Shook Chapter 7 Part 4
After the lost incedent, Wild Yonder drops the eggs! Mrs. Blue's going to be livid...
Gooey yellow and translucent yolk was all over the floor and on Wild Yonder hands as he caught his fall.
Dyan had to hold in her laugh, but she felt her cheeks grow puffy.
“AH-HA! JUST LIKE THE FISH!” Azure yelled before he burst out in a fit of laughter.
Mrs. Blue smiled at the cashier while she paid for the cracked eggs, but she was frowning the whole way to the van.
Ashamed, Wild Yonder and Azure sat in the row in the very back of the van, and since Dyan would feel weird sitting up front by herself, she sat with them.
Both the twins looked angry.
“Maybe if I had gotten a bike, I wouldn’t have acted so bad,” Azure mumbled.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t have dropped the eggs if I had gotten a new game for my console.” Wild Yonder added.
“But we got new clothes. That’s technically getting a present.” said Dyan.
The twins turned to her with disgusted faces as if she had said carrots were great birthday presents.
“Clothes aren’t presents!” Wild Yonder said. “They're just clothes. We don’t get anything during winter break until New Year's Eve, while everybody else is busy getting their Christmas presents!”
“It’s unfair!” Azure capped Wild Yonder's statement.
Dyan looked down and thought for a moment. “In the foster homes I lived at, we never celebrated Christmas. Or New Year's. Sometimes the outside of the house would be decorated, but no one got any presents. Or, some kids would get presents from their families, and the others, who didn't know their family or didn't have any, didn’t. I've spent every Christmas by myself. While everyone else was having Christmas dinner, opening presents and watching movies, I was in the closet, writing about what it would be like to have a magical Christmas where I got something. Every Christmas night, I would lay in my bed, stare up at the top bunk and imagine what it would be like if I walked downstairs, and parents and presents were waiting for me. I used to think of what presents I would have gotten. Toys, cards, or even just new clothes, which would be a good enough present for me. Anything, as long as it’s not nothing.”
Wild Yonder and Azure sat quietly, staring at Dyan, thinking. They hadn’t ever heard of a year where the holidays weren’t spent around the fireplace opening present’s and talking with the family.
When they got home, Mrs. Blue had a fit telling Mr. Blue and the others what happened. She was so angry Dyan felt bad for her.
That night, when the Blue children did their chores, Dyan offered to help them, since she already felt like she had invaded their home. The least she could do was help with their chores. It turned out they alternated between chores, one week the girls had house cleaning and the boys had kitchen, the next week vice-versa. Since the girls had house chores, Dyan was asked to brush Bear.
Dyan pretended that Bear was an actual bear. As she sat on the floor he towered over her, with his thick brown fur, bright yellow eyes, and threads of gooey saliva dripping from his mouth. Yuck! She slowly stroked his neck and back until the brush got full with tufts of fuzzy dog fur. Then Dyan pulled all of it out and brushed once more. By the time she was finished, there was enough hair on the floor to make up a full head of hair.
“Uh…is this normal!?” Dyan asked.
Mr. Blue laughed. “Yep.”
After Dyan finished sweeping up the fur, she brang her new clothes upstairs, Bear trailing behind. Dyan folded her clothes into the suitcase, which by now was nearly packed with other clothes and supplies they would need for the trip.
Maya examined the suitcase. “So Mom got you a new toothbrush as well, which is good, and we’ve already got toothpaste. Are we missing anything?”
“I don’t think so,” Royal answered.
Dyan thought for a moment. “We should bring books, books for when things get boring!”
Royal’s eyes lit up. “Oh yeah! I didn’t think about that!”
Books were stuffed into the suitcase, and finally it was closed up, ready for tomorrow's venture.
Bear stood over the suitcase, then looked over at Maya.
Maya met his gaze. “No Bear. Sorry, but you can’t come. Dad says this trip is too hot for you. You’ll have to stay with Aunt Cerulean.”
“You guys talk to Bear like he’s a human,” Dyan said, staring at the slobbery dog.
“Well, yeah, I never liked talking in that blubbery baby voice.” Maya said, then she mimicked it, grabbing Bear’s face. “Who’s a good boy!? Who's a good boy?” she rolled her eyes. “Not like he’s gonna answer me.” Dyan laughed.
Soon it was nearly time for bed, and Dyan was sitting on her bed with the lamp on, looking over her notebook.
She had written down the ending of the chapter, when Spirit found the energetic little alien.
'Spirit found him in the mini-space ship aisle of a supermarket, the most obvious spot you could find him! It was so obvious, Spirit wondered why she hadn’t looked there earlier!'
Dyan smiled at her writing. She had been right! The Blue family was her book characters come to life! Maya was Spirit, and Azure the little energetic alien, and Bear the family bear! Everything she wrote (or thought!) seemed to come to life! But also, the Blue family surprised her with things. Dyan had never really thought about how each of the aliens would act, but here they were in real life, as humans, each with their own hobbies and personalities. Maybe just like she could write things about their life, her characters could surprise her too.
“Maybe I shouldn’t interfere so much with the Blue family’s life,” Dyan said to herself softly as she closed her notebook. “Maybe I should let them guide me on what I should write. Let them live their lives and let the story unfold in front of me.”
Dyan sat her notebook on the desk, and thought about the pretty blue shirt she had bought today. It sat in a folded square at the top of the suitcase. Go Far, it read.
“I will.”
And with that, Dyan closed the suitcase.
Find out what happens next in the next part!
New to Shook? You can find the chapter archive in this post.
Hey there! I’m Shila! I’ve loved books since I could read, and decided I would write books I wanted to see written for others! Check my children’s book Imagination on Amazon!
Follow me on Twitter!
I also write on Tumblr!