𝐫𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫, 𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘀

𝟎𝟑𝟏

"𝙵𝚒𝚡𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝙴𝚕𝚜𝚎"
ᴀᴜᴛʜᴏʀ
𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺'𝘴 𝘢𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵
𝕤𝕒𝕥𝕦𝕣𝕕𝕒𝕪 𝕒𝕗𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕟𝕠𝕠𝕟

     "OH, LOOK who's risen," Emily beams as she sees Noah come down the stairs.

The woman has already made and eaten breakfast, cleaned the whole downstairs, and read four chapters of her book.

"Coffee now, please." Noah pleads as she rubs her eyes.

"I already drank it all." Emily giggles and watches the teen trudge over to the kitchen.

Emily watches Noah with a smile as the teen puts on another pot of coffee. Noah also hums to herself and pretends to play the drums on some parts of the song. Emily shakes her head and stands to join the teen.

"It's gonna start getting cold out, we should go shopping for winter clothes soon," Emily suggests.

"I mean, I wear pants all through summer, so I'm kinda set." Noah giggles.

"Well, you need a big coat and instead of buying more pants, maybe we can find you some more shoes."

"As long as they're not heels, I'm down." The teen says with a chuckle. After seeing Emily's closet, she is convinced that the only shoes the woman owns are black, heeled boots.

"You're not very girly, are you?" Emily asks with a smile.

"I never had anyone girly to look up to." Noah sighs, "My brother was the athletic, frat-boy type. My mother was too busy worrying about finding her next supply of drugs to choose a good outfit. And before my Dad left me, he was always signing me up for sports teams, so even when I did meet other girls, they were all tomboys."

"Oh, what sports did you play?"

"I played soccer, softball, basketball, and I was once the only girl on a boy's flag football team because my Dad told the coach he would kill him if he didn't let me in." Noah chuckles.

"Did you ever try a track team?" Emily questions.

"No, why?"

"Morgan wants me to convince you to join your school's team—"

"Absolutely not—" Noah insists.

"You can't even give it a thought?" Emily pleads.

"Not at that school. No, never." The teen says as she pours the coffee into a mug.

"What's wrong with the school?" Emily questions.

"I refuse to turn into a cliché student-athlete."

"Who says it has to be a cliché?"

"I do," Noah says, "Maybe a club team or something outside of school."

"You know, Rossi is a part of this country club—" Emily suggests and Noah shakes her head.

"That's not any better," Noah says with a smile.

"Maybe you can think about it then come back to me," Emily smirks and cleans up after Noah's mess of making the pot of coffee.

"I can think about it while we sit on the couch and read." The teen says and grabs her book from the dining table.  She plops down on the couch and sits her mug on one of the coasters on the coffee table.

—
𝟙𝟚:𝟘𝟘 𝕒.𝕞.

The rest of the evening had been very quiet for the Prentiss girls.  Emily spent her time reading while Noah played with Sergio and played games on her new hand-me-down Nintendo from Penelope.