The Night School [GxG] [First Draft Edition]

Chapter Sixty-Seven: March Twenty-First Part One

"Alright then." She tossed me a small smile, "I wish you the best with her, by the way. And don't be too afraid of her. She may be independent but she is also very rule-based. You tell her to stop and she will stop. She may not like it, but it would be a case where she'd fall back on her past teachings and swallow her personal discontentment."

"Mm."

"I feel like I should give you some kind of list of the known Hazel equations, but then I'd feel like I was giving away the secrets to how she lives her life. And it would be hard, considering the equations are extraordinarily complex and have an insane amount of variables." She mused.

"Mm." I repeated dumbly.

"What did you get her?" Megan gestured to the present bag.

"Stuff." I found it in me to smirk up at the younger girl.

"Aw, I'm just curious. I'd been the only one who had ever gotten Hazel a birthday present up until today. But I think our sister used to dispose of the things I sent Hazel. Which is probably why I try to spoil her today." She laughed, running a hand through her hair. "Poor girl. I'm glad she has you. She needs more than just sisterly love."

"I'd say you're pretty good for her."

"Yeah, but she needs a clean slate. Someone whole. Someone ready and willing to stand up to and for her. I think, also, someone without black hair and a ghastly complexion. Especially without..." Her voice trailed off as she tapped her shoulder with one hand, "someone who has never had or lost like we do." She paused for a long while. And I started to imagine what Hazel must have been like before Winter.

"What are you thinking about?" Megan asked.

"Nothing." I smiled, trying to put myself back in a good mood and swallow the nervous butterflies in my stomach.

"I don't believe you, but okay." She chuckled in a very Sinclair-like way. The kinda tone that means you're being let off the hook, but only for right now; the answer may be forced to light at any point forward. Hazel does the same thing.

"So... Are there any plans for the evening?" I asked her.

"Yeah. Mine and yours." She smirked, "my plan is cake. I don't care how or when. I just need cake before the end of my stay. Maybe watch a movie. Maybe play VR. Maybe I'll make an early departure and let you decide. It's already like two so I figure cake takes an hour, that's three, I get an unplanned conference call, that's four thirty, I make a serendipitous return just in time to frost, eat, and decorate the cake, that's five, I drive off into the sunset, that's five fifteen, and then you can make your plans work. I can add in an extra five minutes of unnecessary lecture on contraceptives, if you'd like, but... I've never seen you up a stick, and believe me I definitely know when you would have, and I've seen my sister naked before. She definitely is not a male." Megan gave me a coy look in the mirror while my jaw remained unhinged and dangling.

"What the hell is with you and Marley today?! Is there a conspiracy to ruin my mind?!"

"No, Grace," Megan was laughing her ass off already, and honestly, her smile was a bit too Hazel-like and contagious to support my horrified visage. "It's killing me on the inside to imagine the things you and my sister would do to each other, however, I'm a believer in the idea that misery loves company. Unfortunately, that makes you the company." She giggled. "I do, by the way, want no trace of whatever you do tonight left anywhere around my house. I don't want the neighbors calling cops to complain about the noise. I want you both, you especially, clothed when you'd next see me."

"Oh God..." I groaned, making the eldest Sinclair triplet laugh at me.

"Have I mentioned how glad I am that Hazel likes you and not some stick-assed Nightist?"