Her phone dinged, and she set down her paintbrush once again. Her painting was looking close to done now, though she doubted it would be finished before her siblings got home. True to her guess, one of her sisters, Maple, walked into the house. Maple was her oldest sister, being the third child in the family. Her oldest brother Tyler was in high school like Fern was, and Maple was in middle school. Her other siblings were both in elementary school. "Hi Fern," Maple chirped, walking into Fern's room. "Who are you texting?"
"No one," Fern replied. "Not that's it any of your business." Maple snickered.
"Is it your booooyfriend?" she teased, trying to grab Fern's phone.
"No it's not!" Fern snapped, moving the phone out of Maple's reach. Unfortunately, Maple was pretty tall, and she snatched it out of Fern's hands. "Hey!" Fern shrieked.
"Your conversation is boring," Maple noted as Fern tried to snatch her phone back. She typed out of response before handing Fern her phone back and running off.
Fern: I'd love to go to your house.
"It could've been worse, at least," she sighed. "But maybe now he'll think that I actually like him at all, which I definitely don't." She huffed out of breath in annoyance, hoping her sister hadn't made her sound ultra weird.
He laid back in his bed, looking up at the ceiling. He let out a long sigh, gently closing his eyes as he did. His peace was interrupted from a chime. The text struck him oddly. Uhh… It confused him. What exactly did she mean? He tried to pass it off as best as he could.
Zavian: Cool.
He sat up, trying to keep everything together.
Zavian: My address is {insert address of an okay neighborhood, little cheap}. See you in the morning.
With that, he turned his phone off and went back out to his Grandma. He just sat there next to her as they both watched A rerun of I Love Lucy.
Fern sighed with relief. At least he didn't seem to think she was a total weirdo. Her sister hadn't sent him any hearts…yet. She'd have to be on her guard.
Fern: cool sounds like a plan, see you at ten?
Then the front door opened and her youngest siblings, Joshua and Emily, ran in. Tyler wouldn't be home for another hour because of baseball practice, and her parents wouldn't be home for another half hour (her mom), and three hours (her dad). The four of them watched cartoons together while Maple and Fern worked a little on their homework.
Zavian: Yep.
"I think I'm going to head to bed." His grandma slowly stood up, placing her hand on Zavian's knee for support. "Goodnight. Call me if you need anything." She closed the door behind her and all that was left were the voices of the show. "Luuccyy!" He stood up, turning the TV off and heading to his own room. Turning the lights off, his mind seemed to want to shut everything down. He let the need for sleep overcome him as he collapsed on his bed, falling into a dreamless sleep.
After everyone in her family had arrived home, they had sat down to dinner and talked about their days. Nothing very interesting. But then again, it hardly ever was. Little did Fern know as she got in the shower that Maple and Tyler were trying to think of a plan to throw her and Zavian together, if for no reason than to see their older sister finally get a boyfriend. Her phone was free game for them while she sang indie songs in the shower and easy for them to swipe from her desk. Now all they had to do was think of what to say. It couldn’t completely ruin their relationship but had to nudge them towards each other.
Fern: thanks for agreeing to help me on this, you’re the best :)
Then they deleted it off of Fern’s phone so they wouldn’t know they had sent anything.
A chime woke him up, a light coming from a little further in his room lighting up. He groaned as he got up, not wanting to leave his form of solitude. He took the phone and looked at the message. *I don't think I'm reading this right…" She hated him, didn't she? He pushed everything away, giving up on trying to make sense of everything. He put the phone back and slept. (Shall we skip to the morning?)
(Sure my dood)
Zavian woke, the sun shining through the blinds. He slowly opened his eyes. It was ten o'clock. He had about an hour. I'll just sleep a little longer… "Zavian, are you up yet?" He sat up fully this time. If she was awake, he needed to be. "Yeah!" He got up amd headed for the shower. "I'm going to take a quick shower, that okay?" Her voice called back. "You go right ahead. I'm just watching my show." He closed the door behind him.
Fern woke up groggily to the sound of the alarm she had set. Was it time already? She groaned inwardly. She was so tired. Nevertheless, she forced herself to get up and get ready for the day, having no idea that her siblings had sent an extra (and very out of character) text. She checked the time and realized she was going to be late! (Only by like ten minutes, but late is late.) She quickly hurried off to his house and rang the doorbell nervously, camera in hand.
For a while, he just stood there letting that hot water rush over him. It felt nice. Then he remembered that she that coming over. He quickly finished up and got ready the rest of the way. "Zavian, could you be a dear and change the channel? I forgot how." She was sitting on the couch, remote in hand. "Yeah, no problem." He gently took the remote from get hands and changed it to the channel she usually watched.
Fern shuffled awkwardly between feet for a moment. Was this the right house? She sure hoped it was, otherwise this would be very awkward. Not that it wouldn’t either way. She knocked on the door in case the doorbell wasn’t working, slightly anxious.
Zavian stood up leaving his grandma on the couch. He walked over to the door, checking to see if it was her. Shoot. He opened the door slowly, letting a small slouch overcome him. "Sup." He walked away, leaving the door open and her on the porch to walk in for herself. He walked back into the living room.
Fern assumed she was supposed to walk in, so she did so timidly, slightly annoyed at Zavian. She shut the door quietly and looked around, unsure exactly what Zavian expected her to do.
He motioned for her to come in further. "Just come in. It's not much, but-" His grandma interrupted him. "Well, who is this?" She walked into the living room from the kitchen slowly. "Uh, this is Fern." She raised her eyebrows with a smile. "I'm working with her on a project." She lowered them, still smiling. "Okay. Can you put on my show again? I think I turned it of." She walked over and sat down on the couch. He sighed. "Yeah." He took the remote and pressued a few buttons, turning on the show. He crouched down next to her. "No more walking around without me, okay?" He stood up, turning back to Fern. "We can work in the book room."
Fern nodded, still carrying her camera. “Okay,” she said. She shot a quick, uncertain smile at Zavian’s grandma, thinking that she seemed nice. Having no idea where the book room was, she waited for him to show her.
"This way." He walked into the hallway that led to other rooms. They walked past his room, his guitar up on the wall. I should have closed that. He made his way into the room past his room. It held a few shelves that had books on every shelf, no open space. The room smelled of worn paper, a smell he secretly loved. "This ok?"
“Yeah,” she replied. “This is really cool.” She took a deep breath in, smelling the scent of old books. Then she blushed a little, embarrassed. “You ready to get to work?” She asked, remembering that she didn’t like him.
"I mean, it's okay." That was a lie. If he brought his guitar in here, he'd never leave. "Sure." He brought out a couple of chairs to sit on. Usually, he'd sit on the floor, but he was guessing she wouldn't want to.
Fern plopped down in a chair, setting down her camera and other things. “So we have the script pretty much finished now,” she said. “We just have to plan out how we’re going to film it and everything.”
"Cool." He sat down in the chair, leaning back as he always did. "I-" a voice coming from the living room called him. He sighed. "I'll be right back." He stood up and walked out into the living room. His grandma sat on the couch waiting for him. "Be a dear and help me to my bedroom, would you?" He smiled warmly to her. "Of course." He helped her up, holding her arm gently. They made their way to her room, just across the book room slowly. "Thank you dear." He smiled to her, not remembering that Fern was right there. "I don't want to find you sleep walking again." She laughed a little. "Alrighty good sir." He escorted her to her bed before walking out, closing the door behind him.
Fern tried not to eavesdrop, but couldn’t help but notice how kind Zavian looked. How sweet. Her dislike for him thawed somewhat and she turned away.
Zavian walked back into the room, still smiling at the ground. His grandmother was the only person he truly knew and cared for and the only one who did the same for him. He sat back down in the chair, unaware how possible it was that she heard him. "So…what now?"
Fern shrugged. “I guess…we start filming? There’s several parts that are just a voiceover so we won’t need any actors or anything,” she said, almost surprised at the look on his face, so different from how he usually looked at school.
"Okay." She sat up, sighing a little. (I'm sorry it's so short!!! I'm at a friend's house)
It’s ok haha. My posts have been pretty far between because I’ve been so busy this week.//
She smiled slightly at him. “So do you want to film or do would you prefer that I do it?”
(Dude, same honestly)
"I don't really care." He leaned forward, placing his forearms on his thighs. "I mean," a smirk found it's way to his face, "I'm pretty great at everything, soooo…"
Fern rolled her eyes. “Let’s take turns then,” she replied. “It’ll give us an even workload.”
He clicked his tongue. "Mhmm. Okay." Just then, the air conditioner started behind him, rumbling loudly. That's what he hated about the book room: it was in the wrong room. There were so many noises, something his grandma hadn't taken into account when arranging it, but he didn't want to have to completely rearrange everything.
“I’ll start, I guess, since it’s my camera,” she offered. “Is there a good spot to just film for a couple minutes for a voiceover?”
