Coffee Date Instead, 53 and 21 years old on Alumni

Raine Collindale

July 22, 2020 7:33 AM

Coffee Date Instead, 53 and 21 years old by Raine Collindale

Raine appeared with a faint ‘pop.’ The fresh, crisp air hit her lungs, a welcome reprieve from more than just the seconds spent apararing. She had really needed to get away from her family for a bit. To talk to someone who was on her side. She had Dante too but she wasn’t sure about calling on him for something like this. Their thing was… A little bit more than just physical. It was physicality with feelings but not with any kind of label yet. She ran a hand around the leather cord holding a little necklace made out of one of his plectrums. He had very specifically not given it to her - it was still his. It was easier to track down something that belonged to you. That helped her feel a little more solid about this, especially as their other main reason for seeing each other was… absent. Still, she wasn’t sure how she felt about going to cry on his shoulder, not when he’d been dragged into a couple of the many, many rows that had taken place over the last year. She tried not to think about him as a part of this mess. It wasn’t his fault - he’d just got caught in the cross-fire, a convenient point to attack. She needs routine. She needs predictability. Isn’t that what you’re always saying? Do your own rules suddenly not apply when you feel like getting off with the guy from sing-song time? Summer’s mom had not said ‘getting off.’ Summer’s mom had said something ruder, which Summer had then repeated. And then every time she said it, her mom would look at Raine like it was her fault, even though she’d been the one to say it.

The worst part of it was how it actually felt like she was to blame - not for that particular problem but for the whole current situation - although looking back, what would she have done differently? Tried less hard? That wouldn’t have been the right thing to do but now… Had it been enough? Was it a firm enough start? Everything she’d read talked about early years being the most important, so would her influence on Summer’s life last? Or was it like watering a plant - you had to keep doing it, or it wasn’t going to grow?

It felt strange, standing in the garden by herself. She normally flew too, Summer liked it… She had waited and hoped, and then eventually written Professor Xavier a hasty tear-stained note the day before their planned visit that explained, with very sloppy spelling, that it would just be her this year, but that she’d like to see him anyway, if that way okay.

“Hi,” she said, her voice shaking as she joined Professor Xavier at the back door to the house. .’ “Summer’s mom left,” she said. “It’s happened before but…” But that had always been for a couple of days at a time. That had mostly been rows with Starr. “But never this long,” she managed tearfully, “I kept hoping and hoping she’d come back but…” But she hadn’t. Maybe she was biding her time until the window for the playdate was over because Raine was the one she wanted to get at. That was mean and spiteful and Raine hoped to Merlin and anyone else keeping an eye out that it was true, because the alternative was even worse. “I dunno if she’s coming back,” she admitted, with a sob. “She said she doesn’t want me interfering in Summer’s life all the time.”

13 Raine Collindale Coffee Date Instead, 53 and 21 years old 327 1 5

Nathan Xavier

July 22, 2020 2:24 PM

We don't need to talk about ages this time by Nathan Xavier

When he got the owl saying Raine couldn't bring Summer this year, Nathan figured the whole thing was being called off, but as he kept reading, he discovered that was not the case. Other than Nevaeh, he didn't often meet up with former students one-on-one, but as he had a standing annual tradition to meet with Raine and Summer, he couldn't think of any reason why he should cancel it all together just because Summer couldn't come, and he enjoyed his yearly catch up with what Raine had been doing.

So when the arranged day arrived, he met just Raine at the back door and invited her inside. Dora had been told Summer couldn't come this time, and while he wasn't entirely sure Dora even remembered from one year to the next who Summer was (though she was definitely improving her memory now), she had sounded disappointed when he told her Summer couldn't come this time.

He lead Raine into the kitchen and invited her to take a seat at the table. "Do you want tea or coffee or hot chocolate or water or anything?" he asked, hovering near the cabinet with the mugs instead of joining her there right away. "Dora's around," he added in warning, in case the three year old came tearing into the kitchen demanding a pop while they were talking. "But I warned her it was just going to be grown-ups talking today, so she'll probably stay in her toy room until she gets bored or hungry." Either could happen at any moment with no warning at all, but it was also possible she'd stay occupied with her toys for a half hour, especially if Dorothea was keeping her company, which he thought his mom was doing since she hadn't been babysitting as much lately with the school childcare situation split between himself, Isis, and the Brooding-Hawthornes this year.

1 Nathan Xavier We don't need to talk about ages this time 28 0 5

Raine Collindale

July 23, 2020 3:32 AM

Okay, but I need a real grown up by Raine Collindale

Raine followed Professor Xavier inside, wiping a hand across her eyes although it was fairly futile as the tears were still coming thick and fast. She was relieved that Dora was not around right now, as she would not have felt right bursting into tears in front of her but wasn't really sure there were many other options on the table right now. If Dora had been there, she would have had to pretend to be an adult and to be in control and to know what to do when none of that was true.

She hoped that the actual adult in the room would be able to help. He had, after all, gotten her to graduate high school successfully, a feat never achieved by anyone in her family before. That had seemed impossible at the time, though now it seemed dim, distant and unimportant. Her life since graduation had revolved around what babies and toddlers needed to know instead.

"Um... yeah?" she answered distractedly when he offered her a drink, "Uh, juice," she added, selecting something that hadn't even been offered without even realising, "Please," she added, fairly sure she sounded like a child who only remembered their manners with a bit of prompting.

She weighed up the questions on her mind. Will Summer be okay? If she didn't come back, would she keep learning and growing? She was hitting all her milestones now, Raine had made sure of it. But she didn't ask him because she knew there would be other things, like reading, things they hadn't got to yet.

"What do I do?" she asked instead, somewhat hopelessly, because she had already thought about it herself, and come up with the answer that there was nothing she could do.

13 Raine Collindale Okay, but I need a real grown up 327 0 5

Nathan Xavier

July 29, 2020 1:43 PM

I think I qualify as one of those without bringing numbers over fifty into it. by Nathan Xavier

Nathan poured a glass of juice and a glass of water, and placed the juice in front of Raine, then sat down beside her at the table with his own water. She was clearly distraught and drinking beverages often helped calm people down when they were in that state regardless of if they were three, thirteen, twenty-three, or fifty-three. He chose not to remark on the fact that Raine had chosen the option usually reserved for the three year old, because if that was what she felt she needed, he was not in any position to know better. (Isis being currently pregnant had reinforced this fact, though it was something he already had known.)

He considered her question deeply as he took a sip from his own glass.

Summer's mother had left, taking Summer with her, and Raine didn't know if she'd ever be back. Leaving was apparently not a new feature of behavior, but the length of this trip was unusual, and was clearly upsetting Raine, who seemed to think it might be her fault.

Unfortunately, the advice he had probably wasn't what she wanted to hear. "I don't know if there is much you can do, Raine," he said sadly. "You're Summer's Aunt, and while I absolutely believe you want to do everything you can to help your niece, you don't have many legal rights toward her. If her mother doesn't want you to - as she calls it - interfere, you don't really have a lot of options. Is your brother with Summer and," he hesitated, suddenly uncertain of the marital status of Summer's parents, "her mom? What does he have to say about this? He's the one who can demand visitation as the child's father if she left him, too."

1 Nathan Xavier I think I qualify as one of those without bringing numbers over fifty into it. 28 0 5

Raine Collindale

August 05, 2020 8:15 AM

Okay. Good. by Raine Collindale

Raine sipped her juice, or at least attempted to. It was hard to sip juice and cry at the same time. She definitely would have preferred to stick to the latter and tried her best to focus her efforts there but the former sometimes got the better of her. Especially when Professor Xavier said that there might not be much she could do. She had more or less known that anyway but it still hurt to hear it.

"No, he's still with us," she tried not to feel the flicker of hope at the idea of Starr being able to bring Summer back. The trouble was that all the things Professor Xavier was saying sounded legal and complicated. Or required Starr to be engaged in solving the problem. "He isn't really in the mood to talk to me. I mean, he's not really mad - I dunno if Starr does 'really mad.' He's just like... chill about everything. So, I don't think he really likes that there's been a fight, but also he just... figures things will sort themselves out," she shrugged. 'Being really chill' was sort of Starr's best and worst point simultaneously. "He's a good person when you need a calming influence but not when you need to get things done," she sighed.

She drank some more juice, trying to work out what to say or do. A complicated, grown up solution was only making her head spin. She knew some magic, simple solution didn’t exist. Drinking juice and occasionally crying was possibly about as good as it could get for now.

“She’s doing so well,” she said, a little sadly, because it felt like that was hanging in the balance right now. “She does little sentences and everything. And she gets about, when people follow the rules - when they put her stuff where she expects, and they don’t change the furniture or leave a mess. Which they’re all awful about,” she glared. Okay, so maybe calling Jaycee all manner of names and complaining about her was also on the list of things that would help.

Except it wouldn’t. If they’d gone beyond where Raine’s nagging was going to reach them, nothing she said could make a difference any more. Maybe Summer was bossy enough and knew enough to whip her mom into shape… Raine could practically hear her shouting ‘No, no, no!’ Actually, she thought, glancing at the ceiling, someone did seem to be shouting that. Dora, she presumed. ‘I want go!’ She wondered whether their strops really did sound the same, whether all kids their age protested in the same tone, or whether it was just her imagination that turned it into Summer’s voice instead.

‘I want go! Auntie Waine! WHERE AUNTIE RAINE?’

Raine’s eyes widened for a moment, as they swivelled down from the ceiling, realising that that wasn’t even the direction the voice was coming from. And that it almost definitely wasn’t her imagination. She bolted up out of her seat and back towards the door that led into the garden. As she got closer, she heard another voice, pleading under Summer’s yells.

“Summer, come back, I don’t think we’re in the right place!”

Raine ran out the back door, finding Summer furiously beating her hands against a barrier charm.

“Raine?” Dante let the barrier drop, and Summer stumbled forward, thrown suddenly off balance. She fell forward onto the grass, her tears of frustration turning to ones of attention-seeking alarm as she connected mildly with the ground in front of her. Raine rushed forward scooping her up, offering platitudes and trying not to cry herself. She surveyed Dante over Summer’s head, realising the cause for the barrier charm as he hobbled up to close the distance between them.

“Splinched my ankle,” he confirmed, “Not badly,” he added. “Just enough to not be running after her. I figured I’d got my bearings wrong,” he stared up at the big house behind Raine, “Where are we?”

“Professor Xavier’s house,” Raine informed him. “Come on, I’m sure he’s got something that can help with that…”

13 Raine Collindale Okay. Good. 327 0 5