#fauxcette

i have great news ... with great discussion and consideration ... jack and i have developed the names of the wheeler-harrington children in the happy, all-goes-right au, as such:

sloane wheeler-harrington ––  softball go-getter and perpetual people-pleaser, an absolute daddy's girl with a strong motivation to live up to what she believes her parents (and particularly her dad) wants for her. sporty, excitable, a little lacking in the math-savvy department, but a sincerely darling daughter. she and nance have a strained dynamic at times as nance has always been fearful of ending up a bad mom; the two get closer when sloane is finishing up high school during a period of time where sloane becomes overwhelmed by her own anxiety. hilariously, having not been close for a long time, nancy sees the change in her daughter and ends up proving a surprising help and grounding voice.

mary wheeler-harrington ––  middle child of the bunch, learned early on how to fill the silences particularly when it was her, sloane and nancy alone in a room. she is first and foremost a talker. she speaks up and sometimes spits out just absolute nonsense if needed, anything to keep the air less empty. another daddy's girl, steve, sloane and mary have the most fun doing absolutely stupid shit together; going to concerns, going to the mall, to the beach, etc. mary is a little unhinged. she's a bit impulsive and often acts first, thinks later, which can get her into some unfortunate predicaments. she's good-hearted, though, and cares deeply for other people.

tristan & ethan wheeler-harrington –– steve was anticipating a couple of sporty boys. at least one. but the twins turn out to be a lot closer to their mother in their hobbies and interests; they're book-smart and school-oriented, both of them, and a bit closer to their mom overall. by the time they're born, nancy's become a bit more used to the whole motherhood thing, and somehow doesn't have the same wound to heal that she had with her daughters. she is, funny enough, a fantastic boy-mom. who woulda thought it. the whole family has a keen sense of justice baked into their bones, but i think one of the twins got it pretty bad –  more to come once me and jack continue discussing but if ur askign ME... hactivist style ethan sounds accurate to me in fact!

             nancy leans over the grocery cart,  wheeling carelessly down the aisles as she trails her mother.  she doesn’t want to be here.  it’s hot,  it’s the middle of summer,  and she should be out like a normal teenager,  doing normal teenage things  ( words she’d groaned to her mom all the way to the car,  but didn’t seem to really make much of a difference ).  of course,  there’s some solace in the very real and understandable excuse that she has to accompany her mother on some errands,  making it no fault of her own that she has to miss a date with steve today.  eight months since that night.  in truth it wasn’t just alongside her mom that she didn’t want to be;  she felt as though her skin crawled taking so much as two steps outside her own bedroom door,  let alone house.  in fact,  out of everything,  and everyone,   it was at least comfortable enough to be with her mother in that she could wallow freely and without restraint.

               entranced,  gaze focused on the passing patterns of the linoleum through the metal cross hatching on the grocery cart,  her stare breaks its concentration as words finally grab at her attention.  something,  something,  cereal,  or whatever.

               ❝ sure.   like,  i really  ––  don’t care. ❞        it’s unfair,  and she realizes that;  it’s less an active attempt to poke insults at her mother and more a brewing frustration that digs at her skin and makes her feel so irritable that even a fly’s buzz might set her off completely.  

               gaze shifts to the nearest shelf,  several boxes of cereal lined up beside one another with variations of cheaply designed cartoon mascots.   gross.      ❝ i don’t like the sugary ones.  mike likes the sugary ones. ❞     WOE  -  IS  -  ME  BRANDED  SELF PITY SHINES THROUGH,   and though she can’t recognize it for what it is,  since the world always feels as though it’s crashing down around her,  she’s doing the most normal thing a teenage girl could do.  the words throw themselves out more volatile,  but also quieted,  muttered as she moved to lazily set her chin against her arms,  waiting to continue pushing the cart forward.

as she glances down,  she notices the box of regular cheerios already in the cart,  karen’s hand nearby and beginning to pull at the cart to move them forward.

               ❝ oh. ❞  familiar guilt settles in as she corrects her posture and resumes her dutiful position of cart pusher.  

          ❝ maybe i listen more than you think. ❞     [   ––   @fauxcette .  ]  

                    𝚜𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚎   𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚎𝚍   𝚊𝚝   𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝   𝚍𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚏𝚞𝚕   𝚜𝚙𝚘𝚝   𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎   𝚍𝚊𝚢𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝   𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚙𝚝   𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚘   𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐    ,     where    apricot     sieged     the    horizon     &      dipped     the     earth     in     a     luminescent    gold    .      somehow    it    always    seemed    to    enliven     the     expansive    farmland    more    vividly    ,      like     for    that    short    hour    every    evening    ,      the     wheat   would     come    to    life     before    their    very    eyes    .   

              ❝       𝚜𝚞𝚗𝚜𝚎𝚝    𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎    𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝    ,     could    almost    convince    you    things    were    back    to     normal    .     ❞          the    atmosphere    makes    him    rather    sentimental    ,       recollecting    the    fragments    of    his    youth    with    a    rather    zealous    regard    .       𝚜𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚎    𝚟𝚘𝚠𝚜    𝚝𝚘    𝚛𝚎𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚗    𝚝𝚘    𝚊𝚝𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚊    𝚘𝚗𝚎    𝚍𝚊𝚢   ,     even     solely    for     nostalgic    purpose   .

    ❝        I   SWEAR  TO   GOD   ---    MOM    ---     if   i   see   one   easter  egg   in   this   house,     i’m   gonna   scream.      ❞