Found Things

Tessa couldn’t help the laugh that escaped her after she heard her sister’s response. “N-no, Perrie! It wasn’t like that!” She said in between fits of laughter, “The only thing that needs an apology is my pride, I promise.” She assured, Tessa could feel her cheeks turning pink as her sister continued, but she couldn’t help but laugh. “I promise I’m not slapping everyone….just a few people that get in the way of my spinning. Which, by the way, is what happened with Peter.” She said, softly laughing now. “I was at the beach, the usual, and I don’t know. I got lost in the moment, began dancing, and before I knew it, my hand was attacking his face, and he was just…there.” Tessa smiled for a second, before shaking her head and pushing the happy memory away. “See? Nothing crazy, just embarrassment. If anything, I’m the one that needs cookies. I’m sure he has enough people to bake him cookies.” She said, trying not to sound jealous or like she cared. “What about you, Perrie? What new things do you have to tell me?”

“Are you sure?” She laughed, sitting back up straight and gesturing out the window. “I’m gone a few months and you’re here slapping people!” Perrie was teasing, of course, and she couldn’t help but laugh again looking back at her sister. After the explanation, she nodded. It made sense that being the reason Peter got slapped--she never really believed Tessa had slapped someone out of anger. Then again, if she had slapped someone, Perrie would’ve been ready to back her up. “Nothing crazy,” she repeated, trying to hold back her laughter. After a moment she stopped. “Alright, alright, I’ll bake you some cookies, but only after you go into more detail about that comment. ‘Enough people to bake him cookies?’” Perrie gave her a curious look. “I’ll answer your question if you answer mine.”

“Oh, fiiine.” She said, giving her sister a little pout for a couple of seconds, before smiling again. The same way Perrie was able to come out of her shell with Tessa, she was able to feel more at ease with Perrie, which is precisely what happened when her sister suggested softer music. “Sister time, that might I add, I did not get enough of even though Facetime.” She lightly teased, pulling out of the airport and finally hitting the open road again. Once they were on the way, it was smooth sailing on the open road. “Looks like you’re my lucky charm, sis. I left at least thirty minutes early to come to get you, and STILL, the traffic managed to get me.” She shook her head but kept a smile on her face. It was hard for Tessa not to smile when her sister was around. Perrie was her rock ever since the moment she found out she had a sister; She was everything Tessa ever wanted in a friend, and it made her fill with so much pride and excitement that Perrie was her sister at the end of the day. 

“Anyway, tell me everything! Any flings while you were there? I need to know all the things that kept you away from my Facetime time.” She teased again, glancing over at her sister for a quick second before looking back to the road. “I smacked Peter, let’s just get that out of the way too.” She felt her cheeks turning red, laughing a little.

Perrie took a few moments to set up a queue of songs to play on their drive home, finally relaxing now that she was back home--back in Costa Serena. She glanced up for a moment, watching the island go by out the passenger window as her mind wandered. Would it be weirder for everything to look the same after five months or for it all to be different? Tessa pulled her attention back to the moment at hand as she spoke, making Perrie laugh over the comment of smacking Peter. “Well that’s a story I need to hear! What on earth happened for you to have to slap Peter?” She set the phone down, a Norah Jones song beginning to play at a low volume as she leaned her elbow on the center console and invaded her sister’s personal space. “I leave you for a few months and you start slapping people--honestly, I’d say ‘what would you do without me,’ but I think you’ve already answered that one.” Perrie leaned her chin in her hand, letting her head lull to the side as she looked out the front window. “How bad is it and how many cookies am I going to have to bake as an apology for him?”

Tessa had been both excited and nervous since the moment she woke up that morning. It wasn’t just any other day for the girl; today was the day she marked on her calendar with a big red heart because today marked the day her sister returned home. She made sure to leave the house extra early, but still, she was caught in traffic, and it caused her to show up a couple of minutes behind schedule. Tessa, however, had lost herself in her music, as she usually did when she drove. She wasn’t surprised when one of the their songs came on the moment she arrived at the airport and pulled into the ‘arrival pick up’ section of the airport. She made sure to turn it up and lower her windows and sunroof so her sister could know she had arrived; after all, she wouldn’t be Tessa if she didn’t make an entrance. Luckily, it wasn’t long before she spotted Perrie, pulling up to her and not even trying to hide the big smile on her face. “Good! Why?” She turned the music up just a bit more and sang, “I’M FEELING GOOD AS HELL!” She lowered the music again, laughing, then put the car in park and got out. Tessa did not hesitate to run around the car and wrap her sister up in as big of a bear hug as she could muster up, “Don’t leave me anymore, okay? I missed you too much!”

“Now, let’s get you out of here! I hate airports. Plus, you must be starving!” She took one of her sister’s suite cases, opened the trunk up, and helped load some of the luggage in before making her way back to the driver’s seat. “"Also, totally, your choice of music. I’ll be nice this one time.” She teased, reaching over to open the door for her to get in when she was ready.

Any sadness she felt about leaving Rio De Janeiro evaporated as soon as she saw her sister. Perrie had never been an extremely outgoing girl, kept more to herself, but Tessa had an easy way of bringing her out of her shell. She laughed, singing along to the song and not caring how many people were watching them currently. Her laugh was cut short as soon as Tessa hugged her, her own arms holding tight. “I missed you too.” She was content to stay there wrapped in a hug, but she knew they were blocking cars from picking up other passengers, so she followed her sister’s lead. “It’s not like I have the stamina to fly all the way here with these bags.” Perrie closed the trunk and made her way to the front, thankful she could actually stretch her legs in this seat. “How about we play something soft? I’ve only been able to talk to you over FaceTime for the last couple months! I need some sister bonding time, Tessa!”

For some reason, Perrie was nervous to come back home. Rio De Janeiro had been beautiful, full of fantastic food and buildings she could sit and draw all day, but once the semester was over, she knew she couldn’t stay. But would it even feel the same after being gone since January? After a seven hour flight, she stepped out of the airport into the terminal where every passenger was waiting for their rides to show up. Just as she was about to pull out her phone to text her sister, she heard the music--Good as Hell by Lizzo--no doubt coming from Tessa’s car. Her assumptions were proven correct the second her sister’s car pulled up in front of her. “Even the workers in the Control Tower can hear you,” she said with a laugh, leaning down enough to look at her sister through the passenger window.

“Em– Bonjour,” Remy hummed softly. He wasn’t used to being at the front of the house, but Antoine had left him in charge of hosting while he went on break. “Welcome to Seven Seeds. Je m'appelle Remy.” Remy shifted his weight between his feet. He tried to remember what Antoine had told him to say in the event that people entered the restaurant. “Are you looking to sit in the lounge or the dining room?”

“Did you know that the reason why people kiss at midnight on New Year’s Day could have rooted from the Scottish tradition of the Hogmanay? It’s a party held on the last day of the year and in that party, it’s customary to try kissing everyone in the room as the clock strikes 12.”

Perrie looked over at her roommate from where she was lying on the floor. “Hogmanay?” She repeated the word once to get used to the sound before her eyebrows pinched together. “Do you think people still celebrate that way in Scotland, or has it probably given way to the new tradition?”

“Well maybe we can work on that together” Elyon said with a smile.  “Are you doing anything right now?  Maybe we could walk around town and work on getting to know each other.”

She glanced around for a moment before reminding herself that she was trying to get out of her shell. “I don’t have any plans,” she said with a nod. “I think that sounds like fun!”

“Someone told me that having a restart will help me and I hope it will help you too if we do that.” Feeling something cold above her, Gadget showed a big smile because of the excitement the magic caused her to feel. She would never get tired of feeling that way. “Hmm, what about orange or apple green?”

“Oh! A pastel orange would be a perfectly calm, yet happy, color to do!” Perrie grinned widely at her friend as they walked. “It’d be such a nice color to wake up to in the morning and I don’t think anyone would expect our room to be orange.”

Randall has been having a particularly relaxed eeek, which was very surpassing as of late. So he had been planning on finishing of his Wednesday by sketching at one of his favorite spots in town, where he could see a good part of the older buildings. He was not surprised when he saw the one person he didn’t mind running into there. “Hey.” He muttered, sitting near the blonde and pulling a notebook out of his portfolio.

@perriefairy

She hadn’t been able fall back asleep after waking up too early, so she’d gone to her favorite spot in town to draw. Perrie had gotten almost all the way through a sketch of the building across from her when a familiar voice startled her out of her thoughts. “Oh, sugar!” Quickly trying to erase the line she’d drawn, she looked up. “Hi, Randall, here to draw too?”

“After everything that happened to me last year, I’ve been wanting to change things too and this is a good way to do it. It really is about time for us to have a restart.”

“I know what you mean about a restart...” She turned around, looking at the crowd before waving her hand above the two of them and letting a small bit of flurries gather on their hair and shoulders to cool them down. “What color are you thinking for the room?”

“Its nice to meet you Perrie.  I mostly hang out in my room or library.  Some times I hang out with friends if they some how mange to get me out of those places” she said with a smile.

“We’re a lot alike,” she said with a soft smile. “I’d say that I wonder how we hadn’t met before, but I think we both know that we enjoy our own company too much. I am trying to change that, though, so I’m glad I met you.”

“That’s ok.  I’m use to doing non-normal things” Elyon said with a shrug.  “I’m Elyon.”

“I’m Perrie.” She gave a small smile before nodding. “I get it--but if it’s any consolation, I don’t think it’s non-normal. What other kinds of things do you do for fun?”

“The answer is they do not.” Gadget laughed at her attempt at a joke, then perked up at the suggestion Perrie gave. “Yes please! I was thinking of repainting our dorm just the other day.”

She nodded enthusiastically. “I don’t know if it’s summer or school starting again soon, but it seems like a good time for a new start, you know?”

Gadget mimicked her friend’s actions before nodding at her suggestion. “I can’t remember the last time I ate a snowcone, let’s do it! It’s way colder inside the dorm so maybe we can just stay there until we come up with something better to do?”

She let her hands cool down before placing them on the back of her neck, trying to get some relief from the constant heat. “I don’t know how anyone can handle this heat.” Perrie started walking toward the last snowcone stand she’d seen. “How about we get some new decorations for the dorm?”

“Yeah but that’s more normal then a teenager jumping in the leaves for no reason.”

“I don’t think jumping in the leaves is a non-normal thing,” Perrie said with a small shrug. “Just because other people aren’t having as much fun doesn’t mean it’s weird.”

“I hope we get just as lucky this year. It is unlikely that you will be my roommate again, but I am still hoping on that.” Gadget was not in the best position to adjust to someone else to share a room with after all. Besides, having Perrie helped her in ways she could not count anymore. “Hmm, are you hungry?”

“Fingers crossed,” she said, holding her hand up to show that the middle and index finger on each hand was crossed. “How about a snowcone? It’s way too hot out to do much else--and you know I’m not good with heat.”