Aly Garcia

💨 ― He sobered a little, but he doesn’t let his smile falter in any recognizable way. He didn’t want to discourage her. “Exactly. That’s not on you, nor the consequences of her choice. It might suck but you aren’t at fault.”

She knew he was right but it still hurt regardless.  “Why can’t my grown ass family be as mature as you. MG,” she beamed.  “You just get it.  It’s nice to know I’m not the only one.”

💨 ― He smiled, sensing her pride. Recognizing it in her. “Good for you, Aly!” he was sure to congratulate ― make an honest show of it. “Not all change is bad, and not all traditions work for every family.”

“Yeah, I guess,” she said with a bit of reluctance.  Her family had always been close and despite her curse, she tried to hold on to that closeness but it just wasn’t the same.

“I just feel like I’m paying for my mother’s mistakes.  She is the one that didnt tell my dad.  Why should I have to suffer?”  She didn’t mean to blab but this particular part of her life had been bothering her more so now than ever lately.

“I can add it to my never-ending list of research topics. I am always finding something else I want to study,” she said to explain the list, smiling brightly at the other. “If you can help me get these to my car without dropping them a billion times, I would be eternally grateful.”

“No problem,” Aly accepted with a grin.  She grabbed up all she could carry and followed the history teacher to her car. 

“I’ve heard about your classroom library.. I can’t imagine what your house looks like,” the young werewolf joked.

💨 ― “Really? How come?” he asked, out of habit, then quickly starting backtracking when he realized what he’d said. “What I mean is.. do you want to talk about it?  You don’t have to.” He knew what it was like, not going home. The complicated feelings that followed, too. Though that had changed for him over the years. “Not really.” Definitely not with the family. Even before the bridge itself burned. “New town and all. I figured I’d keep my options open.”

Aly shrugged.  She always tried to play off her family’s opinions despite how they may have made her feel.  “I’ve been here three years, my parents are always weird when I go home for the holidays.  I’m the only wolf in the family,” she said trying to slide the comment into the conversation as if it was nothing.

“Too much family drama?” Josie asked. “Sorry, I don’t mean to pry.”

“It’s hardly prying at this point,” Aly admitted.  “I know Lizzie tells you everything.  So I’m sure you know about my family about how I’m the ‘elephant in the room’ when it comes to the werewolf thing.”  

When Aly first came to the schoo,l she was a bit self conscious about being a werewolf.  But in the last three years, she had learn to grow confident of that trait.  Even if her family had not.  “I’d just rather not participate in the fake family holidays.”

“Um, I’m not entirely sure what all of these are, so I can’t say for sure, but I do have plenty of research and other books on werewolves. Not many are fully accurate given the hidden nature of the supernatural, but I could get you a compiled list of books that are the best sources,” she offered with a bright smile. “But most of things are probably just regular old fiction books I had ordered. I love fantasy, romance, sci-fi… Just about anything I can get my hands on.”

“Did she just hope that you would never trigger it and everything else would be fine?” Lizzie raised an eyebrow. “Well, at least you’re here and you can learn everything you need to know that she didn’t get the chance to tell you.” She felt for the girl. She wished she had been able to know more about the Geminis and the merge sooner. Too often parents seemed to believe that keeping things from their children helped, but instead it left them ill prepared for the future.

“That’s what I’m guessing.  It just really sucks.  I miss Miami some times.  Maybe I should just take a trip there for spring break and not tell my parents.  They probably wouldn’t be in town anyways.”

“Junk mail?” Josie asked as she pasted the other in her way to the cafeteria.

“I wish.  Annual family holiday party invitation.  But I doubt I’m going back to Miami for the holidays.  I don’t feel like dealing with it this year.”

“They still haven’t coped well with you triggering your curse, huh?” Lizzie asked, knowing that a lot of the kids at the school had to deal with similar situations once they joined the supernatural side.

“I think it’s more that my mom never even told my dad it was a possibility.  OR any of us for that matter.  My mother died when my oldest brother was a toddler and she was the last wolf in the family.  I haven’t been able to get much out of my mom about it but, I know she knew.”  Triggering her curse had caused a big riff in her family and was by far the biggest elephant in the room any time they were together.

“Don’t tempt me even more. I am always considering some of those things,” she admitted with a laugh. “No, these are just books. Lots of books. I am a bit of a hoarder. And I often don’t stay in one place long enough to get tons of things like this. But I am making New Orleans my home, so I might as well work on my own personal library,” she explained.

Aly nodded at the explanation.  She loved Mystic Falls and its charm and New Orleans is slowing growing on her but she had never considered anywhere other than Miami home.  She had never even considered it.  It made her wonder if she should reconsider he stance on going home for the holidays.  “What kind of books you got there anyways?  Anything good on werewolves?  My abuela passed before I even knew about the curse.”

💨 ― He was still walking on eggshells, what after making it known to the entire student body that he was without his humanity for a few weeks.. but he had to get back to life at some point, and Aly looked pretty upset. He made a show of eying the trash in which she tossed the letter, then looked up at her. “Hate mail?”  

Aly perked up when she heard MG’s voice.  She had always had a bit of a crush on him but he only ever had eyes for Lizzy.  

“No, just a big family dinner for the holidays.  I don’t plan on going this year though,” she said as she began to walk.  “Do you have any plans for the holidays?”

“It’s gotten that bad this year, huh?” Lizzie asked. “Well you know that you are always welcome to crash our festivities.” Her mother would surely be making a feast.

“Thank god because I cannot do it this year,” Aly huffed.  “My mom and dad are still pretending to like each other.  Like damn, it’s been three years, either you forgive her or you don’t, right?” Aly’s parents hadn’t been the same since she turned into a werewolf theeebyears ago and she just couldn’t stand to pretend they were a happy family again for this year’s thanksgiving.

She steadied herself a bit once some of the boxes were gone and the stack stopped falling. She sighed, relieved as she peaked around the pile. “I thought I could be a strong woman and do it all by myself. Clearly I was very wrong,” she explained, shaking her head. “I am not nearly as strong or steady as I think I am. Thanks for the help.”

Aly laughed a bit. “Ms. Carson... this a lot of boxes for one person.... One might even think you are subscribed to a ton of those monthly subscription boxes,” she joked.  There was quite a few boxes, even for a teacher which made her curious.

“Lizzie! I know you have to be here because I’ve look ever where else,” the werewolf said as entered the room.

“I seriously hope your parents can cook because I cannot do Thanksgiving with my family this year,” she continue as she sprawled herself out on her friend’s bed.

As usual, Tessa had far, far too many packages waiting for her at the school. She had only recently changed her address to her new apartment building, but she was still getting things delivered to the school. “Help!” she called out as she exited the post office, almost falling over from the towering boxes while trying not to drop any.

Aly heard a call for help and immediately answered to it without thinking.  “Miss Carson,” she exclaimed as she grabbed a few boxes from the top stack her former teacher was carrying.  “Why didn’t they have someone help you,” she asked as she grabbed a few more small packages from her.

She opened the envelope anyways, reading the information before throwing it into a near by garbage can.  Not this year.