After the long walk from school to home, along with the pit stop that she had made at K.O. burger, Alice finally arrived home. She kicked her shoes off at the door and walked to the dining room table with her bag and the food she bought in her hands, setting it all down on the table while she slumped her bag next to it on the floor, sitting in one of the uncomfortable chairs with a sigh as she looked around her home. Alice didn't live anywhere special, just a quaint two-bedroom home with very little space for two people. The light grey walls with few photos up on them surrounded her, and a simple, lonely-looking clock sat up on the wall near her above a window. The batteries had long since died at 2:15 some day years ago and were likely never going to be replaced by her father, as he hated the ticking sound it made. Alice's room hardly had space for more than her twin bed and two small nightstands, though her bed consisted of a futon mattress that had been laid out on the floor without a frame. She had plenty of pillows and blankets to make herself comfortable, and sitting upon one of her nightstands was an altar dedicated to the earth and its seasons. It wasn't much, but it was home for her.
As Alice sat at the table doing her homework, she couldn't help but think about Jack's strange behaviour at the K.O. burger and began to wonder if, due to his stress and worry if he even got the order right, not that she would be one to take it back and complain. She paused her homework and took out the burgers and fries, making sure that everything was there before she would let out a sigh of relief. At least nothing was forgotten, aside from maybe some ketchup packets for the fries, but there was ketchup in the fridge. As for the burgers, there was nothing to get wrong. Alice and her father were not picky eaters; having lived in poverty for most of Alice's life, they ate what they could get their hands on some days. Though, with her father working his two jobs and Alice doing tarot readings here and there for the little money she had, they had not needed to worry about food for some time.
After finishing her homework, Alice went to her room, leaving her work out on the table for her father to see when he came home, as she had always done. Sitting on the floor before her altar, lighting the candles around it as she pulled out her tarot cards from the box she kept them in upon the altar. She would get comfortable on a pillow as she began calming and clearing her mind; Alice always did a reading for herself first to see what the future held for her at this moment, as the future was ever-changing. She shuffled her cards in her hands as her mind was cleared, the flames of the candles flickering slightly despite there being no breeze in the room, not even a whisper beyond her own breath. Alice felt the energy of the world fill her chest and body, helping to ground and calm her as she grew excited to see what was to be her likely future for the upcoming days ahead. She kept her question in her mind as she mixed the cards in her hands, pulling one card that she always dreaded seeing of the major arcana, Death.
The Death card doesn't usually mean what most people think, it means that a great change is on its way, usually for better or for worse. Alice dreaded this card's downsides, not wanting things in her life to change for the worst for her and her father, but she knew that there was little she could do to change such a thing. Just before Alice was about to ask for some clarification, she heard the front door open, and her father call for her, so she knew it was him. Putting her Tarot cards down on her altar again, she would snuff out each of the candles with her fingers after licking her thumb and index finger before walking out to see her father.
"Sorry, did I interrupt one of your witchy things?" Her father asked, smelling the candles that she had just put out. He seemed to feel a bit bad as, during good months, she was able to afford groceries for the two of them, even if he didn't believe in her new-age witchcraft. Alice would simply shake her head a bit and hug her father, taking his coat and lunch box from him as they sat at the table for dinner.
Alice would push the fast food in front of her father as he sat down, and while he was a bit disappointed for a moment, he would smile and begin unwrapping it. "Dinner with my father is always more important." Alice stated as she unwrapped her own burger, seeing that her father was stressed from work but was trying not to let it bother him in front of her. He was always so strong for her. She admired him and wanted to be like him for her family one day.
Her father would bite into his burger as he began looking over Alice's homework, squinting his eyes a little as he tried to understand some of it. "I don't know what they're teaching in schools these days. I don't understand half of this." Her father, Alan, said seriously with a sigh as he finished chewing, but he would give his daughter a smile after. "As far as I'm concerned, you did it at least. Good job kiddo." Alan chuckled and took another bite, looking Alice over. He noticed that her mind seemed to be elsewhere at the moment, and he would reach over and place a hand on her shoulder, furrowing his brows together with concern. "Hey, everything alright? You're pretty distracted. Usually, you'd be chatting up a storm about your day." Alan asked. Alice was indeed distracted, staring off out the window as she ate slowly, but she would smile and shake her head to her father as she finished chewing her food.
"Sorry, I just noticed something weird with a kid at school today, and I've been thinking about it a bunch. It doesn't help with the card I pulled before you came home." Alice explained her mood calmly. Thinking about Jack's nervousness at work but not at school made her think about what could make him so anxious in one place but not the other. Alice's father would simply raise an eyebrow as he took another bite of his burger, indicating that he wanted to hear more about what was bothering her. "Well, he had perfectly normal energy when I ran into him chasing some papers that the wind blew out of my hands when a student bumped into me." Alice explained. Though she didn't get to finish before her father began speaking.
Alan swallowed just before Alice was done and responded a bit too early when she had simply paused in her explanation. "A boy, huh? You trying to tell me you've got a boyfriend now?" Alan would chuckle, joking around a bit to try and see his daughter smile, though she would simply frown at being interrupted and sigh a bit, eating a french fry so that her father could wallow in awkwardness for a moment.
"No," Alice stated before continuing with her explanation. "But, when I encountered him at the K.O. burger, and he was filling our orders, he was super anxious and on edge. I don't know why he felt like that at work but not at school. I'm just thinking about what it could be, so I might be able to help him if I can." Alice finished her first explanation, pausing to eat more of her fries and grab the ketchup from the fridge for both of them. "As for the card I pulled," Alice began, looking back to her father as she sat down again, handing him the ketchup. "I pulled the death card. It's not what you initially think. The death card doesn't mean anyone is going to die or anything, just that there is going to be a big change, the death of old habits or old ways, and the birth of something new and better, usually." Alice finished, though Alan looked more confused than before and worried about what it could mean for them.
Alice's father would finish the food in his mouth before setting the burger down, Alice's readings had been right before concerning this card, and he remembered all too well the struggles that came with it last time. "Are we going to have to dip into savings again to get by?" Alan asked, as the last big change that she was warned about, he had lost one of his jobs, and they had to exhaust what little savings they had while he looked for a new one, though in the end, he got a much better and more understanding second job.
Alice would shrug and swallow what she had been chewing. The two of them had almost finished dinner amidst the conversation. "I don't know what it's concerning, I didn't get a chance to clarify the card, and it's too late now. But I'm sure it will all turn out okay. It always does in the end." Alice explained, trying to bring her now anxious father some calm. She would make sure everything was going to be okay, even if she had to find a job to do on top of her tarot readings and school.
Alan simply nodded in response, taking a deep breath as he finished his burger and began downing his fries. "I have an early shift tomorrow, so I have to get to bed as soon as possible. As always, it's good to hear that you're doing alright, kiddo." Alan said simply with a smile before he got up and tossed out his trash, walking to his room and closing the door to try and get some sleep for his early shift, leaving Alice to clean up the house a bit in peace. It was usually just her at home, so the messes made were primarily hers anyway.
Alice put in some headphones and plugged them into her phone so that she could listen to music while she cleaned. She started by sweeping the hardwood floors before mopping them, and rather than vacuuming while her father was trying to sleep, she would take the rugs out to the back porch and clean them the old-fashioned way, by shaking them out and then beating them with a stick of sorts. It was harder, sure, but her father worked hard enough for their survival that she could deal with doing a couple of things the hard way in regards to cleaning. When she was done, however, Alice would go to her room and meditate a while before she decided to go to bed, wondering how Jack was doing and if he had finally found safety from that anxious feeling.
Jack had not. He had not seen Arcee since she dropped him off at work and told him that he needed to be keeping up appearances if they weren't to be discovered. He knew she was in the garage before he had gone to bed, as his mother didn't cause some kind of stink when she got home about Jack not being home so late at night. She worked hard, but sometimes she just annoyed him to no end, though what kind of parent would she be if she didn't annoy her child a little by protecting them? Jack had been anxious the whole time that he was at work, and while he was getting over it now, knowing that Arcee was in the garage or thought she was, it was still bothering him a little.