Ursa Minor (On hiatus)

The Brilliance of Bjork

A/N: Dedicated to ThinkLeftThinkRight for being a faithful reader/reviewer/voter/follower = everything a writer could wish for!

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"Just be nice." I was standing by the entrance to our kitchen looking at my mom unpacking groceries into the fridge. Some she left out on the counter top for tonight's dinner. Tim would be here any second, so I'd taken the opportunity to instruct my mom a little. What to say and not to say. 

"Why wouldn't I be nice?" She asked, her voice muffled by the fridge door.  

"Because." I snapped, and she looked at me sternly. I rolled my eyes. "Just you know, talk about nice things, like don't ask him about politics and his parents and stuff." I searched my mind. "Like he likes photography and dunno, art and strange movies, European stuff.." 

My mom laughed. She was a little bit more dressed up than usual, a hippiesh blouse with colorful flowers, her head crowned by her braided hair, in support of some eastern European president or whatever. Wasn't always easy to keep up with all her causes.  

"Is this some kind of try out?" She leaned against the counter top herself. "An audition? If I'm nice meeting your new friend I'll get to meet that girlfriend properly?" 

"Maybe," I snorted. I pushed myself off the wall and left, as I heard Tim entering trough the front door, no knocking or anything like he belonged to the family or whatever. He surely did not.

Allen was the last one to arrive, out-of-breath excuses as he burst trough the front door, pulling the hood of his head.  

"I had to park across the street further up, there were so many cars." He pulled his hand trough his damp locks. "This rain all the time!" 

"Yeah, there's clouds gathering over the mountains and then it rains in the valley," I answered awkwardly, displaying all my knowledge about my hometown's goegraphy. Small talk about weather was not my forte. 

"Does it snow?"Allen asked expectantly. 

"Eventually. Usually. Has it snowed in Minnesota yet?" 

Allen laughed a little "Of course. Three inches in Grand Rapids only yesterday. I watch the local news online." He smiled and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. He was such a dork sometimes I couldn't even. A clattering sound behind me. Like two young horses my sister and her Stacie/Macie friend came galloping down the stairs. All legs and shiny manes.  

"You must be Matthew's sister," Allen said in his friendly way , unaware of that being friendly or polite to my sister was like throwing the proverbial pearls to the proverbial swine. And sure enough. 

"Yeah, duh, obviously," she snottily replied and rolled her eyes looking at her friend. That eye roll seemed to be all we shared nowadays. They both giggled and swished their long curtains of hair and trotted into the kitchen.  

"I should have warned you, I'm the nice one," I joked wryly. 

"Duh, obviously," Allen laughed, pushing up his sleeves. He'd changed from his school outfit of a green sweater and polo shirt into a dark dark blue v-neck. Like changing for dinner, didn't people stop doing that during the 19th century? Really? But with the wild hair and the pushed up sleeves he looked more bohemian intellectual than boarding school prep. And with the company my mom was keeping, that would probably work to his favor.

He followed me into the kitchen. "My mom you've met," my mom nodded, "and this is the rest." I made a sweeping motion to the people standing around the table, who nodded and waved most of them. Allen waved too but remained half-hidden behind me. It felt awkward. It was all too serious too soon. Deep water. How had this ever seemed like a good idea? Couldn't I just have dragged him to the cinema with Trish or something? But my mom seemed so pleased that I had a new friend over (and not just one of those dark shadows sometimes following after me and Adam), she decided it wouldn't be awkward. Decided it would be great.