Olivia pulled her knees to her chest as she waited for the family meeting to start. James came to sit by her, and she nodded in reply to him and then sweetly rested her head on his shoulder. Riley stood in front of everyone, and then James covered Olivia’s ears as Riley started pelvic thrusting into the air. Unfortunately just a tad too late, as Olivia heard Kylie’s comment about Claire being an easy slut. It seemed like a jab at Olivia’s virginity status, not the Kylie knew anything about that. As far as anyone was concerned, Olivia was still a pure innocent little girl. Shame and self-hate filled her mind. She bit her bottom lip and stared down at the floor. Kylie was kind of right, it was basically her fault that He had done that to her, she had to be asking for it in some way like a slut right? She wondered if she should just tell everyone the truth right now. What would they all think, what would they do?
She remained silent as she looked back up at Riley, and buried the thought of speaking up inside her heart. Olivia raised her eyebrows at Riley, just like their mother always did when she wanted Rye to stop with the pervert stuff. When Riley pulled out the old beanie baby, Olivia smiled remembering their parents happily bringing it out for family meetings and peace talks between bickering siblings. James uncovered her ears, since the mischief seemed to be over. She fidgeted with the end of her left braid as she always did anytime she was feeling anxious or nervous. Riley began the summery of today’s terrible events. She was not really listening, but he caught her attention with two words... ”Elliot’s Back”. She lifted her head from James’s shoulder and listened for more information.
Elliot Longstreet had lived on their block her whole life up until about five years ago when he vanished. He had been Sophia’s best friend, and Olivia’s first crush. In fact she remembered asking Elliot to marry her when she was five years old. She had been dressed in a juice stained Cinderella costume and a plastic tiara, when she handed Elliot a bundle of flowers she picked out of her mom’s garden. “When I grow up will you marry me?” She had asked giving him puppy eyes and hugging his leg. Olivia’s cheeks turned red for a split second remembering her embarrassing past. She had been completely infatuated with Elliot when she was little, and spent a good amount off her childhood following him and Sophia around the neighborhood on her pink hello kitty bike. The one Elliot had taught her to ride without training wheels when she was six. As long as she was not annoying Sophia, she was usually welcomed along on their tween adventures, typically riding piggy back on Elliot.
Then Riley explained their mother’s medical marijuana use to Olivia, and she just glanced over at Kylie rather peeved. She sighed looking back at Riley who still had the beanie baby, though no one seemed to be respecting the beanie baby talking rule. The idea of changing the diner in anyway hurt her inside. It was their parents dream. She understood they were under a lot of stress, and it was a burden but she didn’t want anything else to change, too much had already.
Olivia wished she could help her family more. She wished that she was older and could take over the diner and stop being a burden to her older siblings. Their lives were on hold all because she was too young to legally take care of herself. They should be starting their lives and doing what they pleased without worry. Their mom had been so proud when they got accepted to college, and Mom would gush about her early twenties. She would talk about how she backpacked through Europe with her friends, joined a sorority, how she met Dad at a Duran Duran concert in California, and then they joined the Peace Corps straight out of college. Dad had his stories too, about his time before marriage and babies. He always talked about how he got his pilot license; how he was a bar tender in Vegas, that one time he sat next to Cindy Crawford on a flight to Australia for a surfing competition, and he would talk about the summer when he and his friends followed their favorite band on tour all across the west coast.
Olivia said nothing though; as she let her siblings make the decision about the diner.
The drive home was basically filled with a melancholy silence, reminiscent of the drive to the funeral four weeks ago. The police officer drove behind them, and Olivia was concerned, she really didn’t want to go to jail or anything. She had stopped crying after getting in the car, because she felt like she had no tears left. She sat in the back of the car next to Zoey, with the shopping bags in between them. Now that she was not balling her eyes out, she was actually kind of mad at Zoey for running off.
Zoey had always been the sisters she was closest to, and she even considered Zoey her best friend…at least up until a year or so ago, when Zoey started high school and had no time for Olivia anymore. She remembered playing fairies in the backyard with her sister, running around in tutus and making mudpies. She missed the time when playing with barbies, and singing along to Disney music at the top of their lungs was their favorite thing to do together. Olivia used the end of her sleeve to wipe the mustard off her cheek, as stared mindlessly out the window. Her sweater and hair were still damp and dirty from when she clung to Riley in the food court.
She was surprised when she saw the cop parked in the new neighbor’s driveway. Although she was in trouble at the moment, the thought of a policeman living next door made her feel safer. She was the last to get out of the car and go inside the house, as she was trying to prepare herself for whatever punishment she was going to get. When she sat down in the living room, and Riley let Jerry inside, Ollie took a deep breath to brace herself. She fiddled with the ends of her hair as she listened to Jerrys brief reprimand. After he left Riley calmly smiled, and told everyone to clean themselves up and rest before the family meeting he had planned for later.
Olivia washed her face in the bathroom, making sure only to glance in the mirror as needed. She quickly brushed hair out, and then braided it back to how she had it this morning. Leaving the bathroom she headed to her room to change out of her wet sweater and terrible hoe outfit. She undressed and tossed everything into the overflowing laundry basket next to the closet door. She put on the only pair of blue jeans she owned, and then pulled on a fuzzy pink jumper over her plain tee. She did not really want to be in the same room with Zoey at the moment, so Olivia grabbed her diary from its hiding place, and went down stairs to the kitchen. She grabbed and orange out of the fruit bowl on the counter, and filled her water bottle up with ice water. Slipping on her shoes she left quietly out the back door.
She walked across the backyard and into the tree line. It was chilly outside, but she loved the cold, and she really missed the snow. Angry at Zoey, upset with Kylie, apologetic to Riley, and disappointed in herself she was a mix of emotions. She walked farther into the forest area behind her house, following the makeshift path to her little getaway. Reaching the treehouse she put her diary, water and orange in the old plastic bucket and pulled the rope to make it go up into the trees. She pulled the ladder down, and climbed up and onto the deck of the tree house.
Riley had built the place with James and Sophia back when Olivia was in kindergarten. Back then it had become the neighborhood clubhouse. A time of sleepovers, ghost stories, Pokémon card trading, secret handshakes, and spin the bottle. By the time Olivia was nine the place had been left abandoned by the older teens. Zoey and Olivia took it over, making it there princess castle, and their dad helped them paint it all pink with a sunflower mural on one side. This past year and a half the treehouse had slowly become Olivia’s little hide away, full of her books and art. No one ever went up in it anymore except her, so she had made the place her own by bringing in her stuff.
From the looks of the place, some might call it a death trap, or an accident waiting to happen. Built by tweens from scrape wood and old planks, the peeling paint, and ware and tare of time made it look like it would fall out of the tree at any moment. But it was solid and sturdy; her father had made sure of that. She crawled into the tiny door, and then stood up inside. She tugged the rope pulley system to bring up her stuff in that she had left in the bucket. Sitting down in the beanbag she peeled her orange, and tried to forget about her day. As she ate a slice; she opened up her diary and began writing.
March 1st 2016 Today was terrible.
I woke up feeling like a zombie, and it only got worse from there. I saw Him at school today. It’s like no matter what I do, or how hard I try to not see Him, He is still there at every turn. I still have no idea what to do. I am scared all the time and every time I see Him I just remember it all again. All I want to do is forget, but it’s burned into my memory. My nightmares are just getting worse, and Zoey hates that I keep waking her up with screams.
Anyway Kylie picked me and Zoey up from school at like 10:00am. I was so happy that I didn’t have to be in hell all day, and Kylie was someone I have always looked up to. I mean she is confident and does not care what others think. She is better than me. But today was not some fun shopping trip with the sister’s thing…or whatever. As soon as we got to the mall Kylie pulled out some pot and started smoking it. Then Zoey smoked some, and I stupidly didn’t want to be left out. I didn’t want them to think I was a dumb little kid, so I smoked some to. First of all it tastes disgusting, and kind of burns. I practically coughed to death, and then I just kept going. Anyway being high as they call it, is a really nice feeling, and if it wasn’t for the whole smoking part I would probably do it every day. But I have decided that I will never smoke again. Not cigarettes, not marijuana, absolutely nothing.
Kylie then basically forced me to wear the most terrible outfit in the world. I don’t even wear bikini bathing suits and for some reason Kylie thought I would like to wear tight pleather booty shorts and a matching sleeveless crop top. I about died when I had to walk through the mall in that outfit. I texted Riley, because I just couldn’t handle it anymore. Kylie is bossy, and kind of rude. I always knew she was but not as bad as today. And Zoey, oh my God. She is basically just as bad, but like in a different way. I don’t want to share a room with her anymore. Maybe I should just live in the treehouse. Darn, I just remembered that my backpack is still in my locker, and my lunchbox. I hope whatever Riley packed does not rot overnight in my locker…
Anyway are new neighbor is a cop. His name is Jared or Jimmy I think. He is really nice. I mean he caught us skipping school at the mall, and we all smelled like weed, but he just took us home and gave us a warning. I kind of freaked out at the mall, and started cry my face off. I can’t believe I did that in public. I don’t even like crying in front of my family let alone strangers. I’m so stupid….
Food Log - 5 Strawberries – 2 cal 1 Small chocolate chip pancake, No syrup. – 180 cal 1 Orange – 45 cal 8 French fries – 178 cal 5 glasses of ice water.
By the time she was finished writing an hour had already past. She chugged down her ice water, and checked her phone for the first time since texting Riley at the mall. She read the text from James.
'Remember about five, maybe six years back when I was going through that rough patch and I was doing poorly in school and stopped doing... Almost everything? It wasn't pretty and I know that, but I got through it, and I know you can too. I know things have been hard lately, but understand you have all of us here for you. We all love you very much, and I want you to understand that.'
She thought she had been hiding her true emotions pretty well but apparently not. She tightened her hand around the phone, and felt a little shard of her broken self glue back into place. She text James back. ‘I love you too. Thanks Jamie, I really needed you to say that. Thank God I have one normal sibling. I don’t want to be like Kylie, I just said that because I am stupid. I was being really dumb. Sorry. ’ She pressed send. She got up and went over to the corner where she kept the stack of books, and magazines. She cracked open her well used copy of Inkheart, as she plopped into the hammock, and then wrapped herself in a blanket. She began reading.
A few hours later she woke from her phone beeping that it had a new text. It was Riley rallying the family for a meeting in the living room. She tossed off the blankets and yawned as she grabbed her diary of the floor. She climbed down the ladder and walked slowly to the house. Opening the back door she slipped her shoes off, and entered. She could hear people in the living room, and its sounded like Kylie talking cheerily. Olivia walked into the living room and sat on the floor in front of their dads arm chair. She always did this, it was her spot, it also kept anyone from sitting in her Daddies chair.
Appearance Height 5'11" Weight 165 lbs. Style - Some of the clothes and shoes he owns 1 & 2
Position Blake Warren's Older Brother
Secret Like I would tell you.
School Millington University Part Time - Junior Major - Liberal Arts Minor - Philosophy
Occupation Florist at Hummingbird Creations
Personality Chris is an enigma. His is smart, athletic, and very attractive, a perfect 10 to some. As a teenager he was quite the ladies man in school, and every girl basically had a crush on him. He took advantage of this and was quite the playboy, and oddly became even more well liked for this. He is honest, and charming. Chris is confident and completely at ease with who he is. He likes to go with the flow in social settings, but is a very good leader when it comes to work and sports. Overall he is a genuine guy, but easily annoyed by stupidity and ignorance. He is a good big brother and tries to set an example for Blake. Most describe him as Cool, Calm, and sexy.
Short Bio Chris is the oldest of two children. He has a younger brother named Blake who he loves dearly. His life has been one of privilege and wealth. As a kid he was quite the cocky smart ass, but he became more mature as he reached his teenage years. His main focus as a teen was getting into his father alma mater, Princeton University. School always came easy to him, as did all forms of athletics. He was rather popular among the jocks, and rich kids of Millington, as he was in both those cliques. He basically single handedly got his soccer team to the state championships, and won. He was voted best overall player in Oregon, and was scouted by quite a few colleges. Chris ended up being valedictorian of his graduating class, and took the full ride to Dartmouth for soccer. He decided to go to Dartmouth rather then Princeton like his father wished cause he wanted to make his own path rather then follow his fathers.
Soccer became his life, it had always been a passion but when he started college he felt like he was on his way to being a professional player. his studies took a dive, and he ended up with straight C's in his college classes freshman year, as he was putting everything into soccer. His sophomore year ended in tragedy, and he has now come home to Millington to start his Junior year as a transfer student at Millington University. He works at the flower shop in town called Hummingbird Creations that his old Aunt Cynthia owns. He was majoring in Chemistry, but has change to liberal arts to his parents dismay. He is openly Bisexual, and has been since he was fifteen.
WORK IN PROGRESS WORK IN PROGRESS!!!!! (subject to complete change!)
Appearance
Name Goes By - Bones or Matty Real Given Name - Matilda Bynames - Matilda of Seacourt, Matilda daughter of Augustine, Matilda the Midwife, and Matilda Winterborne. Nicknames - Matty, Tilly, Bones, and Tilda. Alias - Matthew of Banesebury, Matthew Key.
Age 21
Gender Female
Weapon of Choice Throwing Knives/Daggers?
Matilda is very daring girl, and has a thirst for adventure. She is not made for the typical quiet life of marriage, and child rearing. She stakes all her property and even her life on luck, and being clever. She is strong, impulsive, courageous, agile, and sly. Basically everything she is not suppose to be as a medieval woman. She see things as black-white, and she can be idealistic to a fault.
Her fathers name was Augustine. At three years old Augustine was left to the church as a orphan. So he was educated as a boy, and expected to take the cloth, but he met a Irish young woman named Toiréasa, they fell in love, and ran off to elope. Five sons later, Matilda was born. Two days of painful labor in late winter, during one of the worst storms of the decade, she came into the world.
Her father worked as a Apothecarist, and also was a Storyteller for their small village of Seacourt. Her mother took care of all six children; Edwin, Patrick, Alfred, Paul, Jerome, and Matilda, but she also helped her husband as a herbalist for the apothecary shoppe they ran together.
As a child, Matilda and her family lived above their apothecary shoppe. It was a cramped and cluttered home, but also one full of love. Having five older brothers, Matilda was treated as one of the boys. She only owned two skirts, and she only wore it to church (when forced or bribed by her mother). Other then that she wore her brothers hand-me-downs, and ran wild with them and other village children. Climbing trees, flinging mud, swimming in the lake, sword fighting with sticks, and wrestling around.
She was very close to her father, who she called papa. Though her father was always very busy, he always had time for his only little girl. In his spare moments, he would teach Matilda about all the medical plants, how to read, and write, and everything else he knew. At night before bed he would tell her stories he remembered from the bible, and other books he read in his youth. He instilled in her to always follow her heart and do what she thought was right. She liked to help her father in the apothecary.
When Matilda was 10, her mother decided it was high time Matilda started behaving like a young lady. But the headstrong, fiercely independent, and tomboyish girl she was, had other ideas. Traditional women's pursuits, were not her idea of fun, so in defiance she cut her long hair off. Young Matilda didn't want to just marry, have babies, and spend the rest of her life cooking and cleaning, she wanted to forge her own destiny, and do as she pleased, She wanted a adventure.
Needless to say Matilda's relationship with her mother was typically a mixture of quarrels, frustration, defiance, and aggravation, with a few loving tender moment thrown into the mess. They loved each other, but they did not understand each other. Her mom wanted Matilda to be more girlish, to care about her appearance, to wear dresses, and play with dolls. Matilda wanted her mom to accept her for who she was.
By the time she was 13, things began to mellow out between her and her mother. As Matilda started to mature, most of the village boys had more interest in stealing a kiss from her, then practicing sword fighting, or running races like she wanted to do. Thirteen and her life was changing from a wild child into a 'blossoming young lady' as her mother like to say.
When Matilda was 14 her father died, after battling a fever for over a week. It was a crushing blow to Matilda, as her father was the person she loved most in this world. The death of her father helped her bond with her mother, as they both mourned over their loss. Her oldest brother Alfred took over the apothecary, and Matilda joined him for a short time. With her father gone, money became tighter then it already had been, so her mother took work in Nottingham as a spinster. Matilda had always wanted to leave Seacourt, her small little village, so she opted to leave with her mother. She was not going to stay behind and be a burden on Alfred, who had a family of his own to take care of now.
And so began the journey to Nottingham, and the many hardships to come. Her brother Patrick also tagged along, more in search of work then anything else. Even Jerome wanted to come along for the hell of it. Only 2 days into the week long journey to Nottingham, and they were already having problems; two broken wagon wheels, and a run in with a pack of rabid wolves, that resulting in having to put down their only horse. They were basically stranded in a town called Banesebury. And to add to all that that, Banesebury was having an outbreak of pox. Of course Patrick left town as soon as he saw the first cart of dead bodies, he was a pansy when it came to plauge.
So it was just her mother, Jerome, and herself stuck in 'pox' town. With the rest of the money they bought a few nights at the Inn. Matilda's mother caught ill only two nights later, and without money to buy another horse they were stuck in Banesebury indefinably. So Jerome went and found work as a Bricklayer during the day, and a grave digger at night, so they had money to rent a room and feed themselves. Matilda tended to their mother, who was not getting any better, as the days changed to weeks. A month later their mother finally succumbed to the pox. Jerome and Matilda were on their own. They both decided to work to save up enough money so they could get to Nottingham, and rent a place. Matilda sent word to her brothers in Seacourt of their mothers passing.
She needed a job, and there was no such thing as a decent paying job for a 15 year old girl, unless she resorted to selling herself, which was something she would absolutely not do. Being a burden to Jerome was not an option. After cutting off her hair, dawning her brothers clothes, and calling herself Matthew, she finally found work at the Locksmiths, and in the stables. Acquiring lock picking skills was a side benefit of the job. Jerome and Matilda left the Inn to rent the cheaper room above the candle-maker shoppe.
They estimated that in four months they'd have enough to buy a good horse, and set off for Nottingham. But a lot happens in four months... Jerome developed a gambling problem, so all the money saved, was lost to cards games, and bets. Pretending to be a man, was more complicated then Matilda expected it to be. She missed her parents. She missed the days when her mother would braid her hair, and sing songs. She missed her father calling her his 'beautiful darling', and tell her all about medicine. She missed the days when she didn't smell like sweat and dirt. She wondered were she was heading with her life. As a child she wanted to be a knight who saved people, or an explorer who discovered new lands, and fought off assassins. But life was not panning out how she wished, as the four months turned into a year.
At 16 years old, she gave Jerome an ultimatum, he ether stopped gambling and payed his debts, or she would leave for Nottingham without him. Jerome was the brother she was closest to, but she was sick and tired of him coming home after losing all their money, or coming home beaten and bloody from not paying his dues. She had had enough with threats and fighting that came with Jerome owing money to half the town. They argued, and he marched out of the house. The next day the sheriff came knocking, Jerome was dead. After he had left during the night he got drunk, ended up in a huge brawl outside the bar, and passed out in an alley. where he died from internal bleeding. Matilda blamed herself, and considered herself a murderer of sorts, but she also wanted revenge on the ones who caused his death.
After his death everyone Jerome owed money to came to Matilda for their payment, which she refused over and over, only to get her ass beat on a weekly basis. She had only stayed in town to find out who killed Jerome, and she had found out who'd done it. It was the local moneylenders two cronies, Slim Eddie, and Franks. At first she had no idea what to do with this information, and the sheriff didn't seem to care. Then she came up with a plan, she wasn't going to kill them, though the thought had crossed her mind, no she would just steal all their money, and maybe burn their place down. She knew where they kept all the money, she had even helped install the locks to their "treasure" room. After planning the heist out she got to work. Saturday nights they were always down at the tavern drinking, so once it was dark she headed out. Getting into the place was easy, she filled up three huge bags of coins and tossed them out the window onto the cart she had waiting below. She was quick about it, and once she had all the cash in the cart outside she tossed a match onto the hay covered floors. She was done with Banesebury, and saw no reason to stay and watch the place burn. Letting her hair down, she left for Nottingham.
The four day journey to Nottingham was unpleasant, every town she passed buy she left a sack of coins in the churches donation box, gave handfuls away to beggars, and so on. She didn't want any of the money, it felt wrong having it, and she had begun to regret burning the place down, that had been a tad much. She tossed the last of the money into a field full of sheep for some shepherd to find. Once she got to Nottingham, she finally wrote her brother Alfred, on how Jerome had died, and where she was now. Coming into town she went straight to work on finding a job, as she only had enough money left for a week at the inn. The innkeeper took pity on her, and offered free room and board if she would work for him around the Inn, his last maid quit anyway to go get married. Matilda took him up on his offer, but she knew she would need to find payed work soon. So in her spare time she'd looked for one. Fortunately, she found one a few weeks later, as midwifes apprentice. Matilda had impressed 'Midwife Harriet' with her medical knowledge of plants, illness, and such, so after a long talk, she obtained the position of apprentice. The wage was nearly nothing, but she only needed money to but food, drink, and clothing.
Six months later her brother Edwin and his wife Elizabeth rode into town. Edwin always the lucky one, had received an old farm, and some land in Nottingham, after his wife's uncle passed. So they had come to run the old farm. Edwin of course insisted that Matilda come live with him and his wife. Seeing that they would need the help Matilda left the inn to live and work on the farm. Working on the farm helped out her brother a lot as he didn't have the money to hire a farmhand. Matilda kept to her apprenticeship, and helped out at the Inn for some extra money. Any spare time she had she spent shooting bow & arrows, throwing knives at trees, and practicing sword-fighting with a broom handle behind the barn.
She was 17 years old when she met Cedric. Edwin had hired him to help on the farm. They disliked each other immediately. She saw him as arrogant, and presumptuous. He was handsome, but she couldn't help wanting to roll her eyes every time he opened his mouth. He saw Matilda as stubborn, shrewd, and conceited. Basically she had mild disdain for Cedric and he was indifferent towards her. Overtime their bickering and retorts turned to playful teasing, and flirty remarks. Then one night of drinking, and a spontaneous kiss later, they were on their way to a cheeky romance.
Cedric proposed to her on her 19th birthday, and she said 'yes'. She had never thought she'd ever want to get married, but Cedric made her feel complete, he supported her, and loved her exactly for who she was. She couldn't see ever loving anyone, like she loved him. They planned to marry in a year or so, once they saved enough to have a proper wedding, and find a place to call their own.