Chapter 1
Dear Diary,
Why do I have a Star Wars fan for a father? That’s it….I don’t even have a diary, this is a page out of my school notebook, not that you need to know that, its you being written in, alright, bye.
Why am I talking to a book?
And I’m still doing it…..bye.
Dusting off the remnants of broken pencils off her paper onto the ground so they would litter the space between her shoes and the leg of the creaky desk that desperately needed to be replaced in accordance to everyone in attendance at St. Mary’s. She had one foot hooked around the opposite ankle while her face scrunched up into a frown facing the maths teacher who perhaps was the most dull person in existence to ever be allowed in front of a group of year nines to speak about a topic that none of them could care to pay possibly any less attention to.
“You’ve got to help me” Leia mouthed across the room to Annalee who could only frown at her from her spot across the room, wagging a pencil between her two fingers, perpetually dropping it onto her desk, catching the momentary eye of the teacher who would look over at her before turning back to the board and
“I can’t understand you” Annalee mouthed back, over enunciating each word so much so that they hardly looked like words anymore but rather stretches of the mouth done before Christmas choir performances, the ones that Leia had watched snickering to her friends from the pews of their school church at. Leia did the same, twisting a pencil between her fingers in a far more graceful manner, simultaneously chewing her already bloodied lip
“He’s doing the thing again, you have to come over” Leia tried again, mouthing her words more slowly to Annalee, desperately trying to understand her mouthed words from across the classroom, watching her lips slowly trying to hear the words form in her mind but it was little use “Come over tonight” Leia tried again, doing the same obnoxious mouth movement Annalee had been performing just a moment before, but still this was little use
“Miss Anderson? Do we have something to share with the class?” the teacher’s voice rang out, this being the first time his voice differed from the monotonous drawl about Euclid and the importance of proving out the entirety of each proposition. The half of the class who had been half asleep with their heads pressed against their arms resting on the desks in desperate attempt to pass the last minutes of the last class of the day
“Not at all, thanks for asking though” she responded, cocking her head slightly at the man who watched her with scrutinising eyes before seeming to have a contemplation war in his mind about whether or not to turn around and face the board again in spite of the three remaining minutes of class
“It’d do you some good to watch your tone, it would” he mumbled while scribbling up more letters on the board which drew a small collective sigh from the class and naturally due to his going hearing he hardly heard and once he was sufficiently faced back toward the board Leia shielded the side of her mouth as she went back to over enunciating to Annalee
“You have to come over, he’s doing it again” but Annalee only cocked her head again in confusion at her friend who rolled her eyes, dramatically flopping her head down into her hands on the desk as if in defeat while Annalee tried again to replay the words in her head and sort out what Leia might have meant. Leia pounded her head against her arms as the teacher drone one, on and on about Euclid and the importance, once again of justifying your every step in a column on the right side with the steps on the left
“Miss Anderson, if we could regard my lesson with just a bit of interest that would be just brilliant” the teacher huffed turning around to face her once again, her head shot up, hair only slightly disheveled from the pony tail it had been pulled up in on the top of her head
“Everyone else is sleeping” she shot back, but the bell interrupted her and in spite of the shouting efforts made by the teacher to get everyone to sit back down. Leia, like the rest of the grey trousered, grey skirted, black tight, sweater vest, black tie, maroon blazer clad bodies shot up stuffing her books into her leather satchel bag rather painfully bouncing against her hip as she walked, jogging slightly to join Annalee waiting for her by the door of the classroom students were filing out of in masses, ignoring the desperate shouts of their teacher informing them of their homework which he knew all too well would not be done by anyone presented along with the excuse “you never said anything about it” which he truthfully could not fight against if truthfully no one had heard him shouting.
“Alright what were you saying?” Annalee asked as Leia joined her by the door, the two of them standing there waiting for more of their classmates to pass through the door allotting more space for them to join the herd of students like salmon swimming upstream. Them going against rivers of other people and likewise for those they were going against
“My dad’s doing the thing” she muttered, playfully rolling her eyes with a smirk painted on her face, taking a step into Annalee to bump her with her hip. But Annalee only frowned in thought, Leia was talking as if Annalee should have known exactly what she was talking about but Annalee could only frown in confusion while trying to remember what she might have been talking about
“What thing?” Annalee pipped up while the two of them squeezed past a group of year elevens gathered in the middle of the corridor like there was no one else with them, Annalee was shouting over the noise while Leia's skinner frame ducked under the gigantically gesturing arms of a boy shouting to a boy on the opposite side of the corridor from him
“The stupid American holiday thing” Leia shouted back, tugging her blazer away from where it had caught on someone else’s blazer “Damn” she muttered, slapping the button that had pulled slightly loose from her jacket. Annalee pushed through a crowd of year six’s who were all a head shorter than her, though Leia barely was caught up with the height of obnoxious pre-teen boys
“Thanksgiving?” she inquired, frowning at her while Leia nodded deeply. They walked through the giant double doors of the school, an adorned red the same colour as their blazers with concentrated clumps of students thundering down the stone steps onto the pavement and streets in front of the school, most of them engaged in shouting conversation and some of them huddled around one member of their possy staring down at their phone, giggling like mad. The two of them bounced down the stairs two at a time, Leia fishing out a deep blue scarf from her bag, yanking it out and folding it up in a way so that she was able to threat the scarf through the loop placed around her neck
“Yeah, he’s raided the shops and I swear to god they all thought he was crazy” Leia laughed, shoving her hands into her pockets as they started down the street, inhaling air freezing their lungs as they breathed it in, turning their noses and tips of their ears alarming shades of pink
“Mm, text your mum, tell you you’re coming over kay?” Leia nudged Annalee with her elbow shoving her slightly to the side while Annalee fished her phone out of one of the side pockets of her bag, tapping out a message with quickly stiffening fingers, courtesy of the cold that would begin to get colder with December and early months of the next year
“How long has your dad lived here” Annalee questioned, using her teeth to pull off a glove disabling her ability to type out a message, her glove stayed clamped between her teeth as her eyes remained concentrated down on her phone seemingly not detecting her aggressive jabs at the keyboard on the screen and when it did the wrong letter would appear in the text box
“He moved to England from god knows where in America two years before I was born” Leia sighed, looking around at the people in the streets around her. The lampposts were already wrapped up in green garlands adorned with holly berries and gild ribbons near the tops just under the lights of the lamp posts
“And you were born here?” Annalee questioned, Leia stopping in her tracks, slamming a hand down onto her friend’s shoulder and roughly turning Annalee to face her
“How come you don’t know this?” she scoffed in mock disbelief, that wasn’t so much mock but rather genuine surprise at Annalee’s not knowing where she was born “Yes! I was born in London, naturally I live in Oxford which of course you know because...well” she gestured to the space around them, to the rest of the students dressed like them, and students dressed in uniforms differing from their own. Adults using large black umbrellas as walking canes and young couples walking on each other’s arms, looking at each other with hope filled eyes to last through at least Christmas for most of them at least.
“No! Of course I know!” Annalee defended, pulling her wild poofy blonde hair into a knot on the back of her head. Leia laughed loudly, looping her own arm through Annalee’s before shoving it back into her own pocket so that they were temporarily locked together as they matched their steps, taking one large one to the right then the left and back to the right.
“What’s my middle name?” Leia quizzed as they continued to go down the street, cringing away slightly from the cars that sped past them on the street, often times spraying up a bit of water getting on their shoes which they would shriek and jump away from like little kids, drawing the attention of passer byers who would cast them dirty looks
“Rose?” she guessed first, staring up to the sky thinking “Rey? Hope! No- it’s Beth!” she shouted
“It’s Kate” Leia sighed, a hint of laugher tinging her voice as they turned a corner, beginning down the street of Leia’s house, several of the houses already with lights strewn up on the roofs and faux golden deer on the front garden
“Leia Kate Anderson?” Annalee repeated, frowning like it didn’t sound quite right
“Yeah”
“Have you ever told me that?”
“I’m sure I have” Leia yanked her hand out of her blazer pocket, unlooping her arm from Annalee’s before sprinting down the street lined with massive houses just as their own was, wind whipping back her scarf that was untucking itself from its secure place under her jacket sending Annalee chasing after her, down the street, not yet slick with ice though it likely would be soon enough
“Wait!” Annalee shouted, sprinting after her, stopping in front of her house which Leia walked up to, pressing the key into the hole and twisting under it finished with a loud click allowing her to turn the handle and let herself into the house.
Soft Christmas music played from multiple speakers hidden around the house, it was warm, much warmer than it was outside. The girls discarded their bags by the stairs, kicking off their oxfords alongside them while they padded through the house into the kitchen
“Dad!” Leia shouted, Eric turning around in his spot. A rather tall man with greying hair combed over nicely and a chiseled face, he stood in jeans and a polo, red apron over his clothes reading in white “kiss the chef” wooden spoon in hand as he turned in a rather ungraceful manner, spreading his arms as if presenting something of grandeur
“What are you doing here? I thought you’d be at work” she nodded toward him, and then slid to the fridge on the hardwood floors in her black stockings still on while she rummaged past all the many items cluttering the shelves by her father’s multi hour shopping trips in the past few days until she reached plastic bottles of cold apple juice in the back of the fridge. She tossed one to Annalee and twisted off the cap of her own as she climbed onto a bar stool posed at the kitchen island
“Thanksgiving my dear!” he cheered, hands in the air, fists shaking with excitement, walking over to Leia, cupping her face in his hands and planting a kiss on her hair. “Best holiday of the year!” he cheered again, nearly skipping over to his pot to continue attending to the steaming something-or-other in it.
“Dad, we’re English”
“Taste that” he walked over, bowl in hand leaving it in front of the girls, Leia eyed the bowl with suspicion before leaning forward, pushing a spoon to Annalee and grabbing one for herself before taking an infinitesimal amount of product from his bowl and licking it off her spoon
“Thanksgiving is stupid” Leia washed down the little bit of content on her spoon with a large sip of apple juice, she nodded toward her dad who shook his head, laughter shaking his shoulders like Leia had told a joke slightly unfunny with a punchline so bad one could not help but to laugh at its stupidity
“It is great American tradition!” he retorted
“Dad, I’m English. I’ve lived in England my entire life, you’ve lived here for over fifteen years and been a citizen for over fourteen. I think it’s safe to say that we do not typically partake in ‘great American tradition’” she mocked, putting large air quotes around her words
“Well you and your British accent can skip school tomorrow and Friday if you help me cook” Leia smiled widely, hopping up from her seat and skipping over to the kitchen
“Can you and your American accent tell me what to do?” she questioned, going to grab a blue apron with silver threaded embroidery of her initials in the centre in a swoopy font, shedding her blazer in one fluid motion, leaving it on the floor while her free hand lopped the neck loop over her head
“Do they eat biscuits on Thanksgiving?” Leia asked while plucking a few from a plate, tossing one to Annalee and shoving two in her mouth at the same time, hopping up on the counter and perching herself on the counter and hugging her knee into her chest while she watched her dad for only a few moments before returning to conversation with Annalee
“I’m sure some people do” he nodded, humming along to the music not really telling Leia what really to do but if all she needed to do in order to get a day off from school was to sit on the kitchen counter that was hardly a good trade on her father’s part but good enough for her by every mean possible.
“Can we have biscuits for thanksgiving?”
“Sure”
“Can Annalee come for thanksgiving?” Leia tried, her father peered at her with a warning look but he chuckled anyway before turning back to his things
“Ask if her family wants to come” Eric wheeled around, looking over at Annalee who smiled and went to tap out a message to her mother with less frozen fingers and much more effectively this time
“She says she’ll come” Annalee smiled at the two of them, walking over to rummage in the fridge for cookie dough, Leia tossed the tube to Annalee who caught it effortlessly, leaving it on the island while she went to the drawer with the cookie sheets for they had forever been in the same place.
“I’m going to put the kettle on the AGA. What does everyone want?” Leia questioned quickly, fishing a kettle out of a cupboard and filling it in the sink before walking to the smaller kitchen enclosed through just a doorway that was really more of a solarium with kitchen appliances and a table
“You know in America they get a whole five days to a week off for Thanksgiving,” Eric called to his daughter who was lifting the AGA lid and placing the heavy kettle on top, rummaging through their drawer of teas and coffees next to it
“A whole week so people can have one day of eating food?” she called back, frowning at this once her father had said it
“Oh yeah” Eric responded, “thanksgiving’s huge in America, it's a whole day for people to watch American football, and they cook with their families, they play football and such. But a lot of people use the time off as a time to take holidays as well” he responded, speaking like he was reminiscing about something that had not occurred in a long time but held memories of grandeur, good ones
“Are you implying something?” Leia questioned, swinging back into the main kitchen and quickly going to cut shapes out of chocolate chip cookie dough with Annalee though it would spread so much so that it would look more like blobs when they were finished, but it was fun anyway
“No” Eric defended
“You just said you’d let me have two days off of school for really no reason, there’s an implication in that!” she laughed, jumping onto Eric’s back, jabbing him in the side trying to prod and answer out of him but he only laughed at her, shaking her off of him back onto the floor
“You’re mad” he laughed
“Is mum coming?” his face when solemn for a moment, he looked over to the sink sighing for a moment before his smile returned to his face and he shook his head “yes she is!” Leia exclaimed with triumph ringing in her voice and a smile on her face while she ran around the kitchen, Annalee smiled at her giving her a high five when she passed Annalee who was now feverishly smiling for her
“She’s not coming sweetheart, but you’ll know in no more than a few hours alright?” Eric crossed the kitchen, taking Leia’s face in his hands again patting her hair and kissing her head again, she nodded, still and obvious inkling of hope sparkling in her eyes as she looked up at him
“Can you invite mum?” she mumbled, stealing a chunk of cookie dough from Annalee’s hand and popping it in her mouth, leaning her weight against the counter.
“You can call her if you want, but she probably won’t come.” Leia nodded at this, stuffing her phone in the pocket of her apron, turning on her heel in a rather dance like manner to the living room beckoning Annalee to follow.
“Anna!” she called down the hall, Annalee hopped away from the kitchen waving to Eric and following Leia down the hall as she yanked off her sweater vest, leaving it hanging over the baluster column and loosening her black tie with a strip of red neatly slashing across the middle around her neck and unbuttoning the top button of her white shirt while prowling around the living room, choosing one of the deep armchairs to sit in. Annalee chose a chair, slumping herself down in it, leaning her head back with exhaustion while Leia scrolled through the contacts on her phone for her mother’s
“Mum?” Leia mumbled after the ringing on the phone had stopped, she raised it to her ear, leaning into the arm supporting her face against the arm rest of the squashy chair. A sound inaudible to Anna came through the phone and Leia shot Anna a quick thumbs up, Anna nodded up and down at her, letting her eyes flutter shut for a momentary sleep while Leia talked through the phone
“Hello darling, are you alright?” she asked, Leia nodded with a smile on her face as if she could be seen through the phone before answering
“Does something have to be wrong for me to call” she joked, laughing a bit eliciting a laughter from her mother on the other side of the phone
“No, just making sure” Elisabeth laughed, sinking into a chair of her own study listening to her daughter speak
“Yeah, I’m alright. Erm- I understand if you don’t want to come but dad’s doing this stupid thanksgiving thing and I was wondering if you want to come. Tomorrow night, I don’t really know what thanksgiving’s about but dad seems excited” Leia explained, practically able to hear her mother’s smile over the phone if that was possible, though he was wringing her hands white as she spoke
“I don’t know if we’ll be able to make it, but I’ll let you know if we can okay?” Leia smiled and nodded, before answering once again
“Yeah, okay, have a good night” Leia called over the phone
“You too, I love you Leia” Elisabeth explained, smiling as she spoke
“Love you too mum” she paused, holding the phone to her ear contemplating her next words, they would be a good thing to say, a nice thing to say but she wasn’t quite sure about them, not right then “And tell Luke too,” she said, not allowing any time for her mother to respond to that before Leia yanked the phone away from her face and hung up the phone, stuffing it behind a pillow on her chair as if that would snuff out her last sentence and make it so that it was never spoken.
Their relationship was interesting to say the least, and it was rather an odd request on her part but nonetheless it was nice and she could only hope that Luke thought the same.
“So?” Eric walked into the living room, spreading his arms, a nervous look painted on his face, obviously trying to be covered up by a cheerful smile like he had been looking forward to Leia’s answer, she shrugged trying to wipe her face clean of any potential expression that might have been on it
“She doesn’t think she’ll be able to make it, but it’s fine, I reckon she appreciated the call” Leia answered, nicely, smiling at her dad anyway who let out a breath he didn’t seem to realise he was holding. His shoulders relaxed and his face did the same with a slightly more genuine smile on his face while he walked to his daughter where he tousled her hair and profusely apologised
“I’m sorry, I’m really sorry” he mumbled but she was smiling anyway nicely at her father
“No, it’s fine, it's really fine” she jumped up from her seat in sync with the alert that erupted from Eric’s phone, he frowned down at it, pulling it from his own pocket.
“What?”
“Nothing, yeah it's nothing” he muttered, escaping up the stairs two at a time before shouting back down the stairs to Leia who was fully turned around in her seat watching her father turn the the corner on the stairs and listened to his steps down the hall
“Lei Lei, while it’s still light out why don’t you and Anna run down to the shop on the corner, buy yourselves something there’s twenty pounds under the salt bowl” he shouted, covering the phone speaker, leaning over the banister to shout this to her
“You want anything in particular?” she yelled back but a moment of ringing silence hung in the air before Eric said anything at all again
“There’s more money in my wallet” he shouted back
“That doesn’t answer my question dad!” she rolled her eyes a bit, going into the kitchen to grab the twenty pounds under the salt dish and twenty more from her father’s wallet though it was unlikely that she would need all of it.
“Thanks for letting me hang around here Mister Anderson!” Annalee shouted up the stairs with no response from him but Leia could faintly hear him speaking on the phone rather rapidly though she couldn’t tell if it was work or if it was someone else aggravating her father, Leia snatched her school jumper looking nearly exactly like her vest but with long sleeves. It was the same deep grey colour with a thin red strip running along the v-neck. Messily, she tugged it over her head and pulled on her shoes with a bit of effort and the money clamped in her mouth
“Are you going home?” Leia asked as they took a step out the door, pulling it shut behind them as the two of them started down the street to make the rather short journey to the store just down the street and round a few corners
“Yeah, my mum’ll come pick me up” she answered
“And you’ll actually come tomorrow to my dad’s absurd thanksgiving thing?”
“And I’ll bring all your missing school work”
“Thanks” Leia smiled, knocking into Annalee once again as they walked down the street, waving to people in the neighborhood that they knew, looking as if they were hosting their own personal parade until they got to the store, stalking around the different aisles, choosing random things to shove in their bags and pay for on their way out after the cashier having a rather extensive and repetitive conversation with the both of them like they were old friends she hadn’t seen in a good while.
“How’s school for you girls?” she had asked, both of them nodded like it was a simple yes or no question but she seemed to understand anyway, packing away their things into plastic bags simultaneously. She handed the bags over and Leia exchanged them for money, the cashier rambled on about enjoying years spent in school because soon enough they would slip through your fingers and you would miss it. Both girls hardly thought anything of that, glancing at each other with laughter in their eyes. They had plans for after school, they would take a gap year and travel the world before going to Uni and finishing strong so they could start their lives. What it was they were planning on doing with their lives wasn’t exactly planned out, but it would be good, that the both of them knew.
“Have a good night” Leia called, grabbing their bags and design through the automatic doors before she could ask anymore questions about her life or Annalee’s and keep them there for longer than they needed to be. She was a nice woman, a really nice woman but seeing as they were in the middle of autumn with winter quickly dawning on them the sun would begin to fade quickly and rain was in the forecast for almost every single day of the remaining year.
“Darling they’re here” Eric thundered down the stairs, two at a time with his phone in hand, him still glancing down at it every few seconds as if waiting for something but Leia couldn’t imagine what it might be he could be waiting for.
“Who?” Leia called from the living room sitting laterally in the living room, her feet thrown over one of the arm rests and her head propped against the other one, while she was covered by a Christmas blanket and facing the telly with a trashy movie playing on it. She laughed a bit at a person falling into a snow bank and coming out entirely covered in the powdery stuff that at the moment looked anything but pleasant, most movies like making snow look magical, this one did not seem to have an affinity for doing so. They showed how awful snow could be and all the inconveniences that came along with it, for the first time Leia was happy it didn’t snow in Oxford, at least not very often. Of course she would eventually watch any other Christmas movie and once again wish it snowed but for a fleeting moment she was glad that it didn’t.
“Who?” she tried again but her father was down the hall already and at the door, night had fallen and after a bit of time spent in the kitchen figuring out a few maths problems which was the only bit of homework she and Annalee hadn’t scribbled out the answers for during lunch over a few crackers and open textbooks
“Come on Lei Lei” he called back to her, with a groan, reaching for the remote to pause her movie from the coffee table that was just out of reach she fell out of her chair, paused her movie, and drew her blanket around herself tightly as she walked down the hall, the mess of her ponytail sticking out from the red plaid and sherpa lain blanket.
Night had since fallen from the time that Anna and Leia had arrived home from the store, putting all their ice cream in the freezer and tossing biscuits onto a plate and eating at least half of them, the top half of the plate left with nothing but crumbs. It was dark outside and the dotting lights of Christmas in the city were becoming visible though in the next few days even more decorations would go up as the month of December drew nearer and nearer.
“Dad, who’s here?” she questioned again, following him through the house and to the front door where both of them stood for a moment, staring at each other. Eric looked toward the door nervously and Leia had her eyebrows raised saying nothing more than you wuss, I dunno what's going on but I feel like it's funny. He sighed and snatched her blanket off her shoulders, throwing it over a chair he jogged over to in no less than a few seconds before smoothing out her jumper and adjusting her tie as he usually did before school but it was now well past five and she had only forgotten to change out of her uniform. Leia swatted his hands away from her tie and turned toward the door, reaching out for it herself but he did the same, swatting her hand away from the handle. He leaned for it himself and twisted it slowly, pulling it open to a car sitting in their driveway, boot open and a clamouring family rushing around the car like a bunch of mad men.
“Dad who’s that?” Leia looked up toward him but his eyes were forward as he swallowed thickly
“Our thanksgiving guests” he choked out, almost as if it was painful to say. The man, the father of their family stopped in his tracks of herding his children. He walked over with his arms open wide and feverish smile on his face, attacking Eric in a hug. Eric’s hands remained at his sides, allowing the man to hug him while he took two awkward steps back to not fall backwards. He bent his arms at the elbows to awkwardly pat his sides back
“How are you baby bro?” he shouted, Leia widened her eyes looking at the man and the woman with the three children running around the car, she took a tentative step backwards back into the house before Eric reached backwards, not even looking behind him and pushing her forward back out the door
“Fine, I’m fine Jackson” he choked out, gasping as the taller man released him from the rib crushing hug and Eric’s eyes were wide with shock already as he took the steps down the porch and out onto the driveway to the car where he hugged the woman. The oldest of the three children, a ball leaned against the car clacking away on his phone, the younger two who had to be just younger than Leia though not by much
“Here I’ll help you with your stuff” he insisted, but Jackson jogged back out to the car, grabbing a bunch of luggage, the kids did the same leaving the wife, Leia, and Eric with nothing which Leia didn’t mind too much about though Eric kept trying to help with the bags.
The seven of them shuffled back into the house, into the living room after dropping all the luggage at the base of the stairs. The two younger children were silent for the most part other than shoving each other and the younger was mumbling to his mother and nothing more as they found their way into the living room.
“Aren’t you guys tired?” Eric questioned, as he and Leia brought coffees into the living room, a mug in the hands of Leia and likewise in Eric’s hands. Both of which they handed to Jackson and his wife whose name Leia didn’t know
“Are you kidding?” Jackson joked, his voice booming loudly “we’ve been on Oxford time for days now, you never come to see us so we finally came to see you” he announced, taking a long sip from his mug “It’s only nine o’ clock for us as well” he said, looking over to Leia as if this was the first time he had taken notice of her at all, his eyes bounced between his wife, Leia, and Eric while patting his wife’s leg, mouth slightly agape and nodding slowly up and down
“Is it really you Leia Kate Anderson?” Leia’s face contorted into a frown of confusion both at his usage of her full name and his apparent amazement at seeing her as if she hadn’t been tagging after them for the past half hour. She nodded slowly looking around the living room at the room of people that were now staring at her, the oldest son glanced up from his phone to see who his father was talking about, the two younger stared at Leia as if waiting for something amazing to happen
“I haven’t seen you since you were like three” he sighed, slapping his hands down on his thighs and leaning back onto the sofa, staring up at the ceiling seemingly remembering something that Leia did not nor was she interested in trying to do so. Their presence for the next week or so would be quite enough of memories to last her of this family for a while
“I don’t remember” she admitted, the three children looked up again at her with bewildered eyes like she had performed an impossible circus trick, she looked around at all three of them and glanced at Eric whose face was in his hands already, laughter slightly rocking his shoulders
“Would'ja look at that, she has an accent” Jackson exclaimed “she has an accent” he echoed himself
“Yes, she’s lived in Oxford for her entire life” Eric informed his brother, sarcasm dripping like melted honey off of each and every word that was uttered out of his mouth, he pinched the bridge of his nose out of utter disbelief at their surprise at this.
“Anyway, little bro” at his talking again Leia groaned a bit, sinking into her chair and watching their conversation unfold, “where’s your- oh I forgot you guys are- you guys got-” he couldn’t seem to complete one thought before trying to make it sound a bit better with little success each time. Eric pinched the bridge of his nose even harder than he had been before as he looked up at his brother
“Jackson, we divorced thirteen years ago” he said quickly, looking up at his brother for the first time in a while, eyebrows raised in the motion of painting a shocked look on his face
“Why didn’t you move back to the states?” he questioned, his wife’s hands were around his bicep, patting him as to tell him shush you sound insensitive but if he noticed, he showed no sign of it at all, not in his demeanor nor in changing his words
“Because my daughter’s mother lives here” he stressed
“She would have had family in America dude” Jackson retorted and his wife was now patting his arm more harshly and more frequently so it resembled more of her patting the beat to a song on his arm rather than trying to inconspicuously tell him to stop talking
“Yes, but I made sacrifices to be with her mother, and we had children and having children, you know, means that you make sacrifices so you can do what’s best for you children and if I had the choice I was not going to deprive my daughter of a mother who loves her and I am not going to make sure that my son never sees me” Eric retorted, their spat now catching the attention of everyone in the living room. The three children’s eyes were darting back and forth between their father and their uncle, while the wife was hissing in his ear for him to go to bed, Leia was quietly chuckling
“You mean the mother than I’ve seen you in the same room with once since your divorce? The mother whose name you won’t even mention? The son that I’ve never met? The son whose only photo in your house is when he was a baby?”
“Don’t you dare tell me what I’m doing right and wrong when you’re openly bashing your children’s uncle in front of them”
“Um, why don’t I show the four of you to your rooms?” Leia stood up, walking over to the sofa and motioning to the wife and the three children sat on the couch, the wife seemed happy with this idea as she shot up and ushered her children toward the stairs where all of their bags still sat. Leia helped with a few while the other three grabbed some of their own and made their way up the stairs until they placed them all down at the top of the stairs
“Alright, so here’s your room and next door there are four guest bedrooms in total which I guess means that each of them can have their own if they’d like” Leia explained, pushing open the door to one of the guest bedrooms which the wife set down her own things in
“Oh, where’s your room then?” she questioned, Leia frowned for a moment before realising that it might not have been something that one could reasonably assume. She laughed at herself a bit before looking down the hall at the door to her room
“I have the attic” the wife’s face grew very grave and serious at this, folding her arms across her chest while looking at Leia like she told a very inappropriate joke about a sensitive topic that shouldn’t be prodded under any circumstance
“He makes you have the attic?” she asked, a warning tone in her voice as she shifted her weight to one foot and raised a single eyebrow at Leia who was struggling to contain her laughter
“No!” she defended “no no no, it was my choice. I had the second biggest room but I wanted the attic because it was like having my own floor, it's very nice honestly” she told her, the other three children had gone to the other rooms of the house while the wife still stood in the doorway of the one room looking at Leia like she was mad, only slightly though
“I can show you” Leia said, though it almost came out like it was a question rather than a statement made to justify what she had said previously.
“Sure” the wife said, following Leia around the house until they got to the door enclosing the rather steep few stairs to the attic, which as Leia said was rather nice. The stairs as well as the floor were done in polished hardwood floors, the ceilings were high beamed and vaulted. She had a bay window seat, a small sofa, a massive bed placed near a massive window. A part of the room had been built out to give her a rather big closet and a seat even hung from the ceiling. The wife ran her hand over the small coffee table, the stand for the telly, the desk and the keyboard all comfortably fitting in the massive room, which like Leia had said, was nothing short of having her own entire floor
“Oh my god, this is just amazing” she sighed,
“Yup, and why I chose the attic”
