The next morning I found myself in a room with Avery, Max, Alisa and Oren.
Avery had come to the same realization as Xander and I had.
"When the will says that I have to live in Hawthorne House for a year, what does that mean exactly? What constitutes living at Hawthorne house?" Avery asks Alisa.
"Why do you ask?" Avery replied, blinking.
"Max, Ash and I were looking at the dinger you gave us. At all those vacation homes."
"Absolutely not." Oren interrupted.
"I agree," Alias spoke firmly.
"But since I have a professional obligation to answer your question: The will's appendix makes it clear that you may spend no more than three nights per month away from Hawthorne House."
"So we could go to Colorado." Max smiled widely.
"Out of the question." Oren told her.
"Given at what's at stake here, I concur." Alisa gave Avery a look before looking over to me briefly.
"What if circumstances prevented you from returning on time?" Alisa asked.
"We have school on Monday, today's Saturday. We'd only be gone for one night. That gives us plenty of leeway." Avery argues.
"What if there's a storm? What if you're injured? One thing goes wrong, and you lose everything." Alisa countered.
I notice Libby in the door way before she speaks.
"So do you"
The sentence causes us to all look over to her.
She's changed her appearance.
She's died her hair to a brown, braided out of her face with normal clothes on, like not her normal clothes but more professional clothes on.
They're not her.
"Libby?" Avery asks.
"Is that a French braid?" She asks, horrified.
"What happened?"
Libby rolls her eyes.
"You make it sound like I was kidnapped and forcibly braided."
"You probably were" I say quietly.
"Were you?" Avery asks, only half joking.
"You were just telling Ash and Avery that you can't allow her to do something?" Libby turns to Alisa.
"Go to Colorado," Max clarifies. "They own a house there, but their keepers here think traveling is to big a risk."
"It's not really their decision, is it?" Libby looks down at the ground, her voice still steady.
"Until they are both emancipated, I am their guardian."
"And I control their assets, including the planes" Alisa replies.
Avery glances at Max before she glances toward me.
"I guess we could fly commercial." Avery says.
"I'm down for commercial" I smile back at her.
"No." Alisa and Oren respond in unison.
"Did it ever occur to you that Ash and Avery need a break?" Libby asks.
"From.." Her voice gets stuck in her throat.
"All of this?" She finishes.
I wont lie, everything that has happened has been overwhelming, I can't say it hasn't been.
But it's also our new normal.
Our lives got ripped up from the ground before they got turned upside down and thrown around.
We lost everything because we gained everything.
Libby lost her friends, her job, her freedom.
She was overwhelmed more than Avery and I, and I genuinely do not blame her.
"Libby-" Avery tried.
"you were right about Ricky, Ave." She interrupted, "And Skye. You were right, and I was just too stupid to see it."
"You aren't stupid," Avery quickly said.
Libby fiddled the end of her French brain.
"Skye Hawthorne asked me who I thought a judge would think is more respectable: the new and improved Ricky or me."
So that's why she changed.
"You didn't have to do this, you don't-" Avery tried.
"Yes, I do. You're my siblings. Taking care of you is my job." Libby spoke softly.
"Any self respecting judge would know you'd be better. Ricky doesn't want anything to do with Avery or I our entire childhoods just to show up as soon as we become billionaires? It's the most obvious thing ever and any self respecting human being could point out the fact that he just wants the money and couldn't give two shits about either of us while you clearly do. You took us in when you didn't have to. You made it your job to look after us when he wouldn't even look our way." I quickly say, finally expressing my feelings on him.
"If my siblings need a break, you and that billion-dollar law firm can damn well find a way to give her one." Libby turns back to Alisa now.
[Hi.
I've not posted anything in a hot minute.
The last two weeks have been very different for me, my mental health has worsened, I broke up with my partner, I got in touch with an old friend and I think I may be falling out of my fixation with The Inheritance Games.
I don't know if I'm falling out of my fixation, however I've had said fixation for many months now and I have preordered The Brothers Hawthorne, I may write what I can of this book now and return when I can, I'm sorry.
I went to the doctors recently, I expressed my concerns about my mental health along with my family, friends and coworkers concerns that I may have autism to then be faced with a lot of ableism in return and to be dismissed about my mental health, saying I "don't look the type".
I recently broke up with my partner as having them relying on me for their mental health getting better was making mine significantly worse, luckily we came to a slightly more mutual agreements when it came down to it but it obviously still hurts.
On another note, I found a new fixation over the past few weeks, it being Lockwood & Co. I've ordered most of the books to be able to read as my local libraires don't have them and I rewatched the series way too many times
I also got into contact with an old friend, we were friends when we first started high school and continued to be best friends over the next three years, however in the third year we got distant due to lockdown. We reconnect every few months and hang out, last time we did we both found out we shared the same fixation on certain content creators, this time we've figured out we share the same fixation on Lockwood & Co.
My family is pressuring me into not getting close with her, saying I'm in love with her or saying that she only wants to be friends with me when its convenient for her, it's not that though, we both just get busy.
We've been talking about the coming months, I'm helping her study for her driving test and she's planning on making sure to come into town for my birthday in June, we're both trying to escape our families and we might move out together, we're both 16 so it's completely legal and we've never gotten into any arguments along with the fact that we share a lot of the same views and opinions, we may also go on a road trip to the other side of the country in the next few months to get away for a bit and maybe look at places we could possibly live.
I'm trying to make time to write but I may not put out too much content, I'm sorry]
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Fame//Grayson Hawthorne
Fanfiction//Book two in the paparazzi series. Ash Grambs had been sucked into a lifechanging series of events, meeting new people and having experiences they never dreamt of. Its been a few weeks since their life got switched upside down but now, there's a n...
