Arista Triton

“Yes, and it always brings a smile to you face, does it not?” Adella replied with a giggle, putting an arm around her sister’s shoulders. “I knew you would, Ris! Come on, let’s take some selfies near the window, where the light is good.” She said, already pulling on Arista’s arm.

“It does,” Ris laughed, shaking her head. She didn’t always want to admit it, but she needed days like this. “Okay, okay, I’m coming with you!” She walked towards the window. She struck a pose. “How do I look?”

“I think most of the time that’s the case,” she shrugged. “You just got lucky.”

“I’m glad I did then,” Arista offered with a smile. “Even if six sisters is a bit overwhelming at times.”

“That’s not to say I don’t have a big family,” she said, almost interrupting herself. “It’s just more of a chosen family than a blood family. And I like it better than way.”

Arista smiled and nodded at the woman’s words. “Oh, I understand. Sometimes chosen family is better than blood family.”

“I was an only child once,” she said, a bite at her bottom lip suppressing a small grin. “I think the experience really depends on who your parents are.”

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense,” Arista replied, smiling. She knew that even all of her sisters probably felt differently than she did and they had the same parents. “I think it would be intriguing for a day. But ultimately, I think I’d rather have my sisters.”

“I know it is. I’ll have you know I’m more than a pretty face.” Rich smirked, pulling off his finger guns at her. “No take backs! Welcome aboard the Shepard train; you’re in for a ride, missy.” Once Arista had given the okay– even if her eyes looked a little wary, he carefully made his way towards her. “One, two…” Richie carefully put his hands around her waist and began the lift off. “Three!” Granted, he knew she would be easy to pick up, but he was impressed at the form they maintained for at least a couple of seconds. “I think that was fucking exquisite.” He exclaimed as he carefully set her down back on her feet.

“I wouldn’t have doubted it for a second.” Ris grinned at him. “Good to know. Thanks for the heads up.” She shook her head as she laughed. Though she was nervous, she let him lift her ( helping as best she could ) and when her feet were safely on the ground, she laughed. “That was pretty fun.”

Her laugh was easy to follow along to; Herc shook his head in amused disbelief at himself. It was nice finding company that would laugh along with you rather than at you. “I’ll take your word for it.” He nodded along at her explanation and grinned, his eyes going from his headphones to hers. “I’m curious now. I’ll share mine if you do too.” Hercules offered his set out to her. “I did a lot of CliffsNotes back in my day. You could use that as a starting point?” He chuckled, an idea popping into his mind. “You know… a good friend of mine spent most of his time doing playlists to match the workouts he wanted. Maybe you could match a list of songs to go with the mood of the book like a soundtrack.” He hummed in thought. “Maybe a similar atmosphere will be a good thing for focusing.”

Arista could hardly imagine laughing at someone ( unless it was one of her sisters, but that was normal, right? ) but when they were laughing at themselves, she couldn’t help but laugh with them. “Oh. Sure,” Ris nodded, handing over her headphones. “Ooh, a playlist for each book sounds like a good idea. I might have to try that.”

“What are you sad about then? You can’t tell me there’s nothing because the look on your face says otherwise.” Clarissa locked on her phone and focused on the other girl as if to prepare for their potentially heavy conversation. “Good.”

Arista was quiet for a moment. She didn’t unload on many people, and only those closest to her could tell what was going on just by looking at her. She decided to give the woman the short of it. “My mom died when I was young. Birthdays and holidays still start off rough because of it.”

“Okay then!” Gently taking the cupcake out of the container it was, Gadget gave it to Arista then smiled. “It’s 2.50 dollars! I promise you that the money will go to a good cause.”

Arista handed over a five as she took the cupcake. “Oh, definitely. And you can keep the change since it is.” She smiled at the girl. She took a bite of the cupcake and her smile grew. “Oh, that is delicious.”

“Baking is my gift and I will not hesitate to abuse it when it comes to you.” Ariel clasped her hands together at the sight, joy washing over her as the candy did what it was supposed to do. “You’re the sweetest.” She replied warmly before stuffing one of the loose pieces of the cake in her mouth. “Well… if you’re in for a spa day, I’m sure I could pull some strings.” Ari wiggled her eyebrows.

“I’m so glad,” Arista grinned at her sister. “No, you are.” Her day was already starting to feel a bit more sunny now. Her eyes grew wide at the mention of a spa day. “Oh, absolutely. If you can do that, you will be my hero.”

“You think the guys over at American Pickers would choose me to tag along buying treasures?” Though her tone was teasing, deep down Ariel knew she would jump at the chance to spend even one evening with Frank and Mike. “Maybe we should pay him a holiday visit?” She chewed on her lip for a moment, the realization of a two-week old text that hadn’t been responded yet– on her end, of course; hitting her all of a sudden. “Ris! These are absolutely fantastic, I have a shirt in the same shade– I love it when an outfit comes together.” Ari giggled before her face broke into a proud smile. "Now would be the time where a little mission accomplished sound effect could come in handy.”

“I think you’d show them some competition,” Arista chuckled. She would love to see her sister with those two. It would definitely be interesting. “Yeah, maybe. It’s probably long overdue.” It really had been too long since they all had seen their dad. Ris grinned at her sister’s reaction. She clapped her hands together. “Aw, yay! And it really would, wouldn’t it?”

He couldn’t help but smile along at her description, the sole thought of it all made his insides go warm. “I wish there were fall sweaters as cool as there are Christmas ones– you know what I mean by cool.” Matt laughed. “Pumpkins for carving or eating, though? Cause I’m still collecting intel before I make a choice to meet up with a certain spice theme.” His brow rose a bit before remembering whom he was talking to. “Well, with six or seven of you around, I’m sure you could make any place into a riot!”

“Right? Oh, gosh, I’d love that so much. Other than what I have.” Arista shrugged. She had quite a few of the typical maroon, orange, and gold sweaters, but having a fall sweater that was more along the lines of Christmas sweaters would be fun. “Both. I’ll carve one or two pumpkins, but I use the insides for all sorts of things.” She laughed at his comment about her sisters. “Oh, yeah, it’s always a blast.”

“I’ve tried, gotta tell ya, he’s one stubborn dude.” He laughed, nudging her. “You’re awesomely non-changeable too.” Matt had to make a conscious effort not to leave a trail of drool behind him; he wanted to buy everything in sight and throw the biggest tea and pastry party ever. “I’ll follow your lead.” He proceeded to copy her order on his own tray, taking notice of some cupcakes that were basically drowning in frosting– he dropped one on both their trays. “I’ve a feeling these will be mystery flavored.”

“Why, thank you. I pride myself in being non-changeable.” Arista laughed, shaking her head gently. “Sounds like a plan.” She went along down the line, chuckling when he dropped a cupcake on her tray. “It looks delicious, however it tastes.”

“I was actually hoping to find someone to join me on a walk since it is such a nice night tonight.  Did you want to come?”

“Oh, totally!” Arista grinned at the woman. “Definitely too nice of a night to stay inside.”

“I think laughing at me would’ve been more like it… not like I could blame you, did it look as ridiculous as it felt?” He felt the pressure in his head alleviate just a little, his eyes resting over the objects she was holding out as he tried to make out the fuzzy shapes into letters. “Oh, yeah, absolutely get it; sometimes I can’t even focus on the music even if that’s the only thing I’m doing.” Herc smiled and shook his head. “I should’ve, though. I want to hear more about it. What was it that had your mind split in half?” He hummed in thought for a moment. “Well, you could stop doing that or keep taking shots at it until you’re practically reading a book per album.”

“It... was definitely a sight,” Arista laughed as she nodded gently. She didn’t want to say it looked ridiculous, but it kinda did. She gave a brief pause when he asked more about it. She was more used to people telling her to talk about something else or just ignoring what she was saying. “Uh... I don’t know, I guess it’s just such new music I wanted to listen to it, but I also really wanted to read the book?” She chuckled, shrugging. “That’s pretty impressive. I mean, an album’s usually around an hour, right? If I could read a book that fast, I would love to.”

“You sure are happy about that.”, Clarissa sarcastically commented. The longer she looked at the blonde, the more it seemed to her that the sadness wasn’t just a light feeling. Despite wanting to know why, she decided against asking for now. “You have two options. One, you can let yourself be sad about how you are getting older or two, you can continue on with life and make the most out of your 26th year of existence.”

“I’m not sad about getting older,” Arista replied, an incredulous look on her face. She really wasn’t sad ( on the contrary, she was excited ) but birthdays held an odd feeling for her sometimes. “I make the most out of life period.”

Her skin felt warm from the sun and her smiled seemed to widen a little more each time either of them spoke. She missed hanging around all of her sisters, it was one of the things she missed the most of home, besides their dad. “Maybe we should all take a little vacation soon or just have a weekend sleepover bonanza or something.” The brunette suggested happily. “Oh my gosh!” Adella miraculously forgot all about her story for a moment, gushing at her sister instead. “Okay, but now you have to tell me all about that encounter! Then I can tell you about my boy. He’s my friend right now, at least I think so.” 

“Oh, yes!” Arista grinned at the suggestion. It’d been way too long since they’d all been together, and they could probably all use a little time with each other. She laughed when Adella got excited, and she shook her head. “I mean, there’s not much to it. I was in the park reading and listening to some new music, and he literally ran into a lamppost. You know how clumsy I am, and even I’ve never done that.” She smiled just at remembering it. “Oh, god, I started going off rambling.” A slightly worried look crossed her face before she laughed. “What in the world did I do?”