[right][color=9f9f9f][sub]FT: [color=fe6f5e]Poppy James[/color] & [color=cdffe1]Aiyana Summerhill[/color]
Introducing: [color=8DB370]Cheyenne Summerhill[/color] & [color=5F9A9B]Odina Summerhill[/color] 
[@BrutalBx][@Aewin][@LovelyComplex][/sub][/color][/right]
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[color=9f9f9f][indent][indent]Aiyana Summerhill had transferred the last of the wood Pavati chopped this morning to their organized pile. After rinsing her hands off from the old western water pump, she made her way to her other sisters. Pavati had already left for the day, likely taking a stop to eat breakfast with her friend before driving to Edenridge National Laboratory. They all had their own routine they followed. That’s just how they functioned as a unit. Chores, breakfast with each other or with their friends, and then their own personal day-to-day tasks. 

Yana wore khaki shorts, a white tank tucked, and ankle working combat boots. Most of the time, she didn’t work until the sun was setting so she used her free time helping where she could or visiting Edenridge to see the Ossos or Jamie, or if Reagan and Riri were in town, the whole Royal Flush Gang. She kept herself busy but that’s because she knew if she didn’t, she’d get severely depressed. That’s how she’s always been. A curious, energetic and smart girl who could never sit still. Pavati would get frustrated trying to braid her hair when they were little. Reagan had to forcibly instill patience in her wandering brain. It’s been an ongoing battle even to this day. Really, Jamie was the most understanding when it came to her wanderlust and even showed her ways to explore it, like through stories and art. 

Approaching the patio of her father’s cabin, where Cheyenne and Odina sat, who were finished with their morning chores too, Yana stretched, reaching as high as she could to the blaring sun peeking through the branches and leaves. This small retreat, in between the ranches and the heart of the reservation, was their little slice of heaven they called home. Sadly more often than not, their father was never around. He was a restless soul, who lived by the seat of his pants, which meant his four daughters had to turn to others like their uncle, Chief Coldwind, for guidance.   

Even with her small victories, like becoming the manager at Blue Sun’s Hotel & Gambling Hall, Yana wasn’t satisfied with her life. To be honest, she believed she’d never be satisfied in this life. If she spoke what was true in her soul, it was painfully obvious she was mind boggling bored, lost without a compass and empty as a bird’s nest in December on the inside. At least to her sisters, they believed, no they knew she was meant for something more. That the reservation, as much as they all loved it, was holding her back from her true purpose. Pouring herself a jar of freshly squeezed lemonade, thanks to Odina, she sat on the available rocking chair and took a ginger sip. Holding her jar in both hands, she smiled, inserting herself in her siblings’ conversation, [color=cdffe1]“Dad’s coming home today.”[/color] 

[color=8DB370]“How much do you want to bet we’ll be seeing a surprise when he does?”[/color] Cheyenne responded coarsely. Her father was just that: a parent in blood only. Chief Coldwind was a better father than Big Bear ever could be to her or her sisters. She dropped herself beside Yana, on her lap was her discarded textbook on loan from Astrid McCarthy and her firm. Cheyenne, for as long as she could remember, wanted to pursue law. Perhaps she was inspired by the plights her people faced their whole lives; wanting to offer them a stage to use their voice. Perhaps she was moved by the struggles her people endured during their entire lives and wanted to provide them a platform to express themselves. Maybe it was the financial benefits that came with such a career. Most likely, it was both. She was only going into her first year at law school now, but that never stopped her from working as a desk clerk then moving onto an assistant position with Astrid in preparation for her application to Boston University School of Law.  [color=8DB370]“It’s been a while since he’s surprised us.”[/color] She looked at Odina, unable to hide her teasing smile.

[color=5F9A9B]“Hardy har har.”[/color] Odina leaned back in her chair and glanced out at the woods laid out before them. She was the youngest Summerhill…that they knew of. She was at least the youngest that Big Bear had brought home from his many adventures. [color=5F9A9B]“Let’s be honest, he probably doesn’t even have it in him any more.”[/color] She said in quiet hope. Odina probably shared the least of her father’s visage. She was definitely more like her mother, sharing most of her Hawaiian features and was also bigger in more ways than one in comparison to the rest of her siblings who all looked like supermodels. Fixing the straps of her sweet summer dress, Odina let out a small yawn. She had left the Longhouse early after the band had finished its set. Unlike her bandmates, she preferred a quiet night in. [color=5F9A9B]“Maybe we should surprise him?”[/color] The youngest Bear Cub mused. [color=5F9A9B]“Let’s change our name to Coldwind!”[/color]

[color=cdffe1]“Our surname is just a word. A word that only has meaning because we give it value,”[/color] Aiyana rocked in her chair with her eyes closed, listening to the birds and the bees, and all the things that made their home serene and peaceful. Pavati didn’t have the same plight as they did. Pava’s mother, Matoaka, was still around as a nurse practitioner, trying to encourage the younger folks to get employment outside the reservation. Sustaining a stable life on the Res was not easy.  There was a 50 to 70 percent unemployment rate in most reservations, which was one of many problems Native Americans faced.

Regardless of their hardships, while Matoaka was still around, Pava was more her child than his, which is why she was a Huaman and not a Summerhill. Though, the elder woman wasn’t the malevolent type and did give her daughter the option when she was a teen to change it. Pava chose to keep her name as is, likely because deep down, their eldest sister was a hopeless romantic and if she ever found her special someone, her surname would become his. 

Summerhill was just a word. 

A word they associated with their father. 

[color=cdffe1]“When is his boat getting here anyway? I wonder if I should greet him…”[/color]  Aiyana was speaking to the air mostly as she rocked back and forth. Unlike Odina and Chey, Yana wasn’t angry at her father. She missed him, sure, but she felt like she understood where he was coming from and why he needed to leave, time and time again. Maybe life was easier to deal with if she didn’t hate her father. Who knows. She still loved him. She just wished he was here more. They all wished he was here more.  

[color=5F9A9B]“Let me check.”[/color] Odina lifted her phone off of the nearby table and scrolled through the messages. Tena preaching about the girl she slept with. Ryan’s drunk speech was always hilarious. Heather trying to bite back on the venom on her tongue. Then she got to her last message from their father. [color=5F9A9B]“Here it is.”[/color] Her deep chocolate eyes scanned its contents before reading it verbatim to her siblings. [color=5F9A9B]“Storm delaying us. Should dock in the morning around nine or ten in the AM. Love all you girls. Tell Uncle Chris to do a beer run. Captain Costigan confiscated my liquor.”[/color] She placed the phone back down onto the table and sighed. [color=5F9A9B]“If you do want to greet him, you should try and catch Pava. She’ll be heading to Eden soon.”[/color]

If not Summerhill, what would she be? Cheyenne’s mind started wandering as she considered Odina and Yana’s conversation. The thought to change her name never crossed her mind, believing the name being her only connection to the reservation. Her and Yana’s birth mother had abandoned them shortly after Cheyenne was born, leaving the babes at the mercy of the Chief while Big Bear explored to his heart’s content, so choosing her mother’s name was out of the question. Really, Pava was more of a mother than her birth mother ever was. [color=8DB370]“I guess I’ll go see him too, gotta remind the old man what his daughters look like sometimes.”[/color] Cheyenne said with no heat behind her words, only the corner of her lips upturned like she’d made a funny joke.

Yana’s eyes shot open when she heard a branch crack. She searched the trees until she caught sight of a pale girl with a summer dress on, strolling down the dirt path that led to town. She looked familiar. [color=cdffe1]“…Penelope? Penelope James, is that you?”[/color] She called out, not caring if the girl wanted to socialize or not.

Holding the sides of her dress, scrunching it in her hands, Poppy diverted from the path to approach the girl that was calling her. It was one of Reagan’s friends. Aiyana. Hard to not know her face when Reagan was the Supreme after Allison’s passing. Aiyana was near the top of the school pyramid because of Mei’s sister. Popular. [color=fe6f5e]“Hi, yeah… it’s me,”[/color] she stumbled on her words as she surveyed the other girls she was less familiar with. 

[color=cdffe1]“What brings you to Blue Hill? This is a first,”[/color] Yana sat up, placing her lemonade on the table near her. 

Brushing her long dark hair behind her ear, the thin James girl replied, [color=fe6f5e]“I, uh, needed to meet someone.”[/color]

[color=cdffe1]“Mitena, I’m assuming,”[/color] Yana bluntly assumed, before explaining, [color=cdffe1]“I saw you briefly last night when I picked Odina up from the Longhouse. This is Odina, by the way, and Cheyenne,”[/color] Aiyana pointed to each girl as she said their names. [color=cdffe1]“My sisters.”[/color]

Cheyenne raised her hand in a lazy wave as she regarded Poppy with part curiosity, and part pity. The girl’s life had been dragged through the mud by Charlie’s final act of despair; it was hard not to know [i]of[/i] her even if Chey herself had never met the girl. [color=8DB370]“You know Mitena?”[/color] Cheyenne asked.

When introduced by her sister, Odina offered the stranger a bright Island smile and a delicate wave. Unlike her siblings, beyond their fathers port of return, the youngest Bear cub didn’t have any connection to Edenridge. Like Mitena, the girl her sisters were discussing, Odina got her education in Salem. She had only ever visited Eden when her father left or returned from yet another adventure. 

Gazing at the pale, ghostly spirit that emerged from the woods, she couldn’t help but note just how small she was. Odina was two of Penelope James put together and then some. This brought her back to her previous thought of changing her name. It had become commonplace to refer to the Summerhill girls as the most beautiful women on the Rez, it was just a fact. Yet Odina never felt that way, she never felt like her sisters. In truth, Summerhill shouldn’t even be their name. Summerhill was where they were, the very cabin they now sat in; that was Summerhill. Bear took its name when he built it before his first great adventure and the birth of Pava. He always said, he didn’t know what lay in his future but he knew that whatever it was could shame their respected family. Thus Bear Coldwind became Bear Summerhill. Maybe he had the right idea?

Snapping back from her daze, Odina returned her attention to the newcomer. She looked like the legends always described Esther Carlisle, especially her emerald eyes. For a moment, she wondered if the ghostlike girl really was a ghost.

[color=fe6f5e]“Barely,”[/color] Poppy admitted, twiddling with her fingers as she observed the other girls enjoying their morning breakfast. [color=fe6f5e]“I came here to find her, to get some questions answered but I ended up…”[/color] The white girl diverted her gaze and looked toward her feet, ashamed of how she acted at the picnic table earlier today. [color=fe6f5e]“I need to clear my head so I can have a proper conversation with her not clouded by emotion.” [/color]

[color=cdffe1]“Hm, I see,”[/color] Yana grabbed an empty jar off the table, as well as the pitcher, and poured a glass. When it was filled, she lifted it up and beckoned Penelope, [color=cdffe1]“Freshly squeezed, if you want some.”[/color] Aiyana wasn’t one to pry, if Poppy wanted to talk she’d let her bridge the conversation or let her sisters take the lead but it sounded like she needed kindness more than anything right now. Her visage, as beautiful as it is, was dressed in hopelessness, self doubt, and pain. Poppy had a darkness hovering over her. A shadow that never left her side. A ghost. [color=cdffe1]“I promise it isn’t poisoned,”[/color] she teased. 

[color=fe6f5e]“If you don’t mind?”[/color] Poppy hesitated to walk up the stairs to the porch. 

[color=cdffe1]“We don’t,”[/color] Aiyana answered for the three of them before offering, [color=cdffe1]“Once you’re done with that, we can walk with you. We need to go that way anyways.”[/color]

It was typical of Yana to take charge when Pava wasn’t around. She was the second oldest after all and despite her claims otherwise, she was not a shy wallflower. The group she associated herself with in Edenridge, the Royal Flush Gang she called them, were anything but shy from what Odina had heard. [color=5F9A9B]“Yeah; you see the thing about Rez life is that we all rise at like 5am, do our chores and then go off to whatever town we work in to actually make a living. Chey has to drive into Boston! What a trooper!”[/color] She always worshiped her older sister's drive and ambition. [color=5F9A9B]“Did you just walk down from Uncle Chris’ ranch?”[/color]

Poppy nodded, answering through action and word, [color=fe6f5e]“I did. The Chief has been very kind to me since I’ve been here. I’m actually staying at Adora’s place with a couple of friends. Mordechai’s been here way back when, when his brother was alive, and that’s where he usually stays,”[/color] Poppy bit her cheek when her honesty came out with ease, feeling like this wasn’t the time or place to talk about Decky’s dead brother. Taking a sip of the lemonade, she smiled to herself. It was refreshing and perfectly balanced. Very good on this warm summer morning. [color=fe6f5e]“Uncle, you said?”[/color] Poppy had registered what Odina had mentioned. These girls — including Aiyana, one of Reagan’s closest confidants — were the Chief’s nieces. That was pretty neat to be related to the person who keeps the village going and running smoothly. 

Ryan, Aiyana, Chey, Odina. 

The Chief had such a beautiful family and Poppy knew she was lucky to have made their acquaintance. Naturally kind people. Something that’s hard to decrypt in her hometown where half of the population have a secret they’d do savory things to protect, where there were just as many bad people as there were good, and where nothing was as it seems. Unless you had innate instincts and were in tune spiritually, an empath one might say, navigating through the many faces of Edenridge was like solving a complicated puzzle where every piece had a motive. Edenridge aside, the Chief’s family were ridiculously attractive. Maybe Poppy had a type. 

[color=8DB370]“Mm, Big Bear - our father - is the Chief's brother. I wouldn't believe it either with how flighty Dad is when Uncle Chris is so... grounded? Complete and total opposites.”[/color] The Chief had always been a warm figure in the Summerhill children's lives, always offering a comforting smile and a terrible dad joke to lift their spirits when things would get too hard. [color=8DB370]“At least they both share a wonderful talent for telling stories. Can't help but hang on to every word they speak.”[/color] Where Big Bear's stories were often about his travels, feeding Yana's wanderlust, Chief Chris always had the perfect parable to help you see sense.

Odina’s guilty pleasure had always been listening to her father. She knew that in his own way, Bear loved his girls, in spite of her teasing the contrary. Unfortunately, he could not satiate his desire for adventure by asking about the boys and girls his kids were dating and the mundane careers they had chosen. He needed a journey, the destination never really mattered as long as the open ocean or road lay before him. Odina missed her Dad but she had accepted that his love was with them but his heart was not.

[color=5F9A9B]“If you’re going to catch up with Pava, you better get a move on. She’ll be leaving soon and then you’ll miss Dad.”[/color]

[color=cdffe1]“Yes!”[/color] Aiyana hopped up off the rocking chair, leaving her drink behind. The excitement showed, like a little girl waiting for her father to come back from the military. Yana was always a daddy’s girl, even if he wasn’t present for most of her and her sisters’ lives. [color=cdffe1]“Chey you still coming? And Odina, will you clean up, pwease?”[/color] The free-spirited one of the three had already left their side, not waiting for a response, and was standing on the dirt path, being as impatient as ever. 

[color=cdffe1]“Penelope, maybe one day you’ll meet our father! He really is full of stories, I’m sure you’d love them.”[/color] She watched the white girl in a playful manner, which only caused Poppy to smile. Aiyana was childish, which wasn’t something Poppy expected. All Poppy saw was how intimidating the Royal Flush Gang was as a unit but to see Yana in her element, fully comfortable and at peace, surrounded by family, that was admirable. That warmed her heart. 

[color=8DB370]“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming. Someone needs to be there to make dad sweat.”[/color] Where Yana was the sweet puppy waiting for their father to get home and Odina sweet but tolerating, Cheyenne often welcomed Big Bear back with grief. Cheyenne stood up from her seat, resisting the urge to groan as the weight of the textbook on her lap was lifted, leaving a sore mark on her skin where the spine of the book had dug into her flesh by the hem of her shorts.

Cheyenne turned to face the ghostly girl, raising a hand in a lazy wave as the other held the textbook beneath her armpit. [color=8DB370]“We’re going to find Pavati and head to the docks. You should join us, Penelope. I hope maybe you’ll find what it is you're looking for.”[/color] It was obvious to even the blind that darkness plagued the girl, and Cheyenne wanted nothing more than to see it gone for Poppy's own sake. Peace, such a thing to fight for. Cheyenne soon joined Yana on the dirt path, ready to go meet their father again. Was she a little bit excited? Maybe. Would she ever admit it? Never.

[color=5F9A9B]”Oh it’s fine. You girls go have fun, I’ll just keep the cabin clean. Not like there’s any scary monsters or wild animals lurking in these woods.”[/color] Odina rolled her eyes playfully as she watched her sisters get up to join the stranger on her walk. [color=5F9A9B]“Fat kid always dies first in these movies.”[/color] She blew a kiss from her full lips towards her siblings. The reality was Odina was still lagging on some chores and sometimes the peace and quiet away from her sisters was a bit of a blessing. She turned her gaze towards Poppy and offered her a bright smile. [color=5F9A9B]“Let the Great Spirit guide you across open waters and lead you to the land you seek… God, I’m starting to sound like uncle Chris. Go. Now. All of you before I start making Dad jokes.”[/color]

Penelope frowned when the beautiful girl called herself fat. Her sisters seemed to barely notice, which meant this was a normal occurrence for them, hearing their littlest sister talk ill about herself.  [color=fe6f5e]“Okay, thanks. Until we meet again?”[/color] Poppy’s gaze softened as she met Odina's dark brown eyes in a hopeful manner. The reservation was something she never knew she needed but here she was walking from destination to destination meeting all kinds of people. Kind people. She really liked this place. If only Charlie had told her about it, or Mordechai even… then she would’ve found it sooner.  

[color=cdffe1]“Come on, Pavati is a woman on a mission, like all the time. The moment she finishes her sandwich with Fallon, she books it.”[/color] 

Cheyenne almost groaned at the reminder of how boring Pava leads her life. There was a difference between working to live and living to work. Pava did nothing but live and breathe her work. As much as Chey loved her sister’s passion for… work, it was [i]boring[/i]. [color=8DB370]“A woman on a mission straight to her death bed, no stops for anything except work. At least dad has fun on his travels, Pava just [i]works[/i].”[/color] Cheyenne complained. [color=8DB370]“She should take notes from Adora and get some good dicking down, maybe then she’ll be like how she used to be back in high school.”[/color]

[color=cdffe1]“Well in highschool, she did have someone,”[/color] Yana looked around as if she could feel her older sister’s eyes glaring at her even if she was nowhere near them. [color=cdffe1]“Maybe a good dick is just what she needs! Which might be easy for her to get, if she took a break.”[/color]

Poppy watched as the two girls talked about their eldest sister getting laid. She was given a glimpse of the day to day life of the Summerhill girls and was amused by their banter and natural exchange. Unfortunately, she didn’t remember who Pavati was or if she ever met her in Edenridge but she couldn’t wait to meet her. Everyone so far at the reservation was interesting, vibrant, and full of life.

It was refreshing to say the least.

She liked being here.

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