Purely Fallen - D. Richardson (little bear else holmelund minarik .TXT) 📗

Someone cleared their throat. Actually it was more than one someone. Then I realized I was still staring after her. I turned back to the room to see all of them staring at me. It made me uncomfortable. Normally I wasn’t able to be seen, so to be stared at was somewhat new to me.

“What?” Sara rolled her eyes, Brett raised an eyebrow, Kathleen, Raven’s mother, smirked, but Jacob, her father, seemed to be getting angry.

“It’s been too long since you’ve been on earth. Staring at a girl like that is considered inappropriate.” Sara answered.

“Why?” I didn’t understand what had gotten them so upset.

“Because it hints at intentions that are less than pure.” She said sweetly.

It took me a moment to comprehend her meaning. But as much as I wanted I couldn’t dispute the accusation. I couldn’t deny that I felt an attraction to her. So I just nodded to show that I understood and made a mental note that if I observed her to do it more discreetly.

Raven

I woke up relatively relaxed. Of course finding out that you’re a mythological creature isn’t exactly something to brush off. But I couldn’t let it disturb me too much. I figured I would just take it one day at a time. Who knows maybe it will help understand a few things about myself. Like why I was so restless all of the time, and needed physical outlets or I would become destructive.

But since I couldn’t wallow in bed I got up for school. After that the day passed in a blur. It was mostly spent asking Bret++t questions on the rare occasion that Sara and Gabriyel weren’t around.

I understood that they were sent to watch me, but it got creepy at times. To the point that Sara would even follow me to the bathroom. I was seriously going to have to set some boundaries.

And I started with my auditions to my new school pass times. They were both shadowing me as I made my way down to the music room. I had set up a time with the choir director that morning to meet up right after the last bell. After this is it was directly to the gym for the dance team. The captain set it up so I could audition without the rest of the team there. She owed me a favor anyway since I had been copying my notes for her when she had late practices for the last two years.

So when I reached the choir room doors I turned to my two stalkers with hands out, palms facing them. They both halted and looked at me with surprise. Sara less than Gabriyel. Apparently she had been on earth allot longer than he has.

“End of the line, you can wait out here.”

“But…” Gabriyel started to protest.

“No.” I cut him off, but he was determined to get his say.

“We are supposed to watch you in every aspect of your life.”

“I don’t care. Some things are personal and this is one of those things. I don’t need you staring at me while I’m trying to audition for something I never wanted to be a part of to begin with.” He flustered and whined for a couple more minutes before finally giving up.

Twenty minutes later I had passed my audition with flying colors. It was actually kind of embarrassing. The teacher kept gushing and demanding to know why I hadn’t tried out years ago. Saying I had been wasting my talent. I let her rant for a few minutes before telling her I had to go try out for something else. She let me go even though she wanted me to stay to rehearse the songs that they were working on at the time.

The dance audition went roughly the same way. I had enough control of my body to copy any moves she showed me once and get it down the first time. She didn’t gush as much as the teacher. She didn’t see wasted talent but a future advantage. Something about finally winning state. I left before she could get too far into her rant.

I stepped out of the gym to see Gabriyel and Sara bickering about something. It looked kind of personal with all of the arm waving and attempted whispering so I just walked past them. Unfortunately they weren’t so involved in their argument that they didn’t notice me. Instead they just continued on as they followed me to my car. We finally got there when they both paused to stare.

“What?” I looked my car over. It wasn’t great being a ‘90 Taurus but it wasn’t an eye sore either.

“Why do you have a car seat in your car?” Sara asked.

I supposed it did make me look like I had a kid. I had been keeping that car seat in my back seat for the last year. Sometimes people needed an emergency babysitter so I bought one. It just made things easier.

“I baby sit. Speaking of I need to go pick a kid up so I‘ll meet you at the house.” I didn’t give them a chance to argue. Instead I just jumped in and started the ignition.

About an hour later I pulled into my driveway with an almost three year old boy chattering in my ear. Sam was a sweet kid and he had good parents. But I understood that sometimes parents needed a break, and it was a good excuse to get down on their level and be a kid myself.

“Come on shorty it’s time to go in.” I said getting out and opening the back door. I unbuckled him and helped him climb out grabbing the diaper bag at the same time. My parents were patient with my desire to baby sit. I did it two or three times a week depending on who needed what.

“Okay. Raven can I play with your legos?” he asked in that baby voice of his. It was adorable.

“Sure, but only until Jack gets here.” He hopped up and down in his excitement.

“Sam’s coming?!”

“Yep.”

“Yay!” He ran ahead of me to the back door. I had been babysitting him every Wednesday since he was a baby and he knew my home as well as I did.

I walked in just behind him and everyone was already congregated in the kitchen. I was surprised to see Brett was there. He usually steered clear when I babysat. Probably because kids couldn’t get enough of him. Which was demonstrated when Sam threw himself at him in the excitement that only a child could have.

“Brett!”

“Hey kiddo, what’s up?” Sam buried his head in Brett’s shoulder for a second before beaming up at him.

“Raven said I could play with legos until Jack comes!”

“That’s great why don’t you go get them?” I put the diaper bag on the counter ignoring Gabriyel and Sara as I made my way to the living room. I had to deal with them for eight hours at school. To think that I had to have them watching me until I went to bed made me feel exhausted.

When I made it to the living room I opened what should have been a coat closet. Instead it held all of the things I needed for the kids. Including a little table with miniature chairs, that I quickly assembled. Closely following the table was the large box of toys that I had splurged on for the kids. On the top shelf was the box of legos that I kept on standby.

Sam was already seated at the little table when I put in in front of him. He immediately dug in and I went to the kitchen to pull out whatever meat I would need for dinner. I settled on chicken and put it in scalding hot water to thaw it quickly. I always made dinner when I babysat. That way I could make something that I new the kids would eat and my parents wouldn’t be bothered.

A little while later my dad walked through the front door. I knew it was him by the loud squeal that Sam let out as he ran to him. Sometimes I think the kids and my dad got confused thinking that they were grandfather and grandchild. But it was adorable to watch. They treated my mom with more gentleness but I think that’s because she had a more gentle nature.

I watched as my dad swung Sam up over his shoulders and had a moment of sad nostalgia. He used to act like that with me, but one day it all changed. He had stopped acting like I was a daddy’s girl and started treating me like a little princess. I guess he never knew that I didn’t want to be a princess. He would play with me all the time and then one day just stopped.

I turned to go back into the kitchen but stopped when I noticed Gabriyel staring at me. He had a calculating look on his face, like he was trying to figure out a difficult math problem. Judging from the way he would constantly ask me questions in class I didn’t think the look was too far off.

I shrugged it off and went to pull the chicken out of the water. I didn’t get the chance to do anything with it since the door bell rung right after that. I wiped my hands on a kitchen towel and went to answer the door. I already knew who it was.

Jenn stood there smiling at me with Jack in her arms. She transferred him into my arms and gave me the diaper bag that had been over her other shoulder. She thanked me profusely, but I brushed it off. I didn’t mind watching the kids and enjoyed it almost as much as the kids themselves.

I took Jack into the living room where he and Sam had an excited jumping up and down reunion. I left them to delve into the toy box and went back into the kitchen. I wrapped some potatoes in aluminum foil and preheated the oven to make baked potatoes.

After I had the chicken seasoned and ready to go I stood back to wait. It took longer to cook the potatoes than it did the chicken so I had to time it just right so they would get done at the same time.

Brett, Gabriyel, and Sara sat at the table. It looked like they were deep in conversation so I didn’t bother them. Mom came home a couple of minutes later and greeted me with a smile before checking on the kids. I could hear them just fine and knew that they were just sitting at the table playing. Jack was just a few months younger than Sam so the only difference was vocabulary.

Then my phone started ringing. All three of the angels sitting at the table looked at me while I looked with confusion at my phone. I didn’t know the number and everyone that talked to me with any regularity were already in the house. I had no idea who it was.

“Hello?” I answered only to hear sobbing on the other end.

“Raven?” I recognized the voice.

“Lauri? What’s wrong?” I heard her take a deep breath.

I had known Lauri since my freshman year. She was a junior at