Hey guys, author here! So, just to warn you, I'm gonna skip some more time because I really need to actually move the story on. Thanks so much for reading. I won't have huge time skips and I'll try to make this flow as much as I can.
(}--|ONE WEEK LATER|--{)
NORA
Nora was reading in her room when she heard a loud bang! and a long string of strange curse words.
Dropping her book on the ground, Nora sprinted to her door and flung it open. She sock slid across the hallway, shivering slightly as a cold, wet breeze blew from the open patio door. Harrison was just behind her, having been in his own room also doing something.
Harrison and Maxi had moved in on Monday. Mouse had told her that they were coming after she'd gotten back from surfing. Nora had been excited. She liked both Maxi and Harrison quite a bit, and living with them would be fun, she decided. So far, it had been.
Maxi and Mouse were in the living room, trying to put up a tree that had not been there five minutes ago. The patio door was what had made the noise. It was on the ground, very not attached to the slider it was supposed to be attached to.
Mouse was holding the tree up and Maxi was sitting on his shoulders as Maxi was trying to string lights onto the top. Nora had to do a double take, and when she realized what she was seeing, she burst out laughing
"How did the door end up on the ground?" Harrison asked. Unlike Nora, he wasn't perturbed at the sight of the two guys struggling to decorate a Christmas tree.
"I'm not sure. We must've nicked it with the tree or something," Mouse replied. Then he said, "Maxi, you're heavy."
Harrison snorted. He walked over to the door, and Nora followed him. She took one side wordlessly, while he took the other. Together, the two lifted it up.
It was a heavy door. Harrison grunted as he grabbed it and made a move to lift it off the ground. "Harrison, stop for a moment, please," Nora said quickly.
Harrison set the door down instantly and looked at her, "What's wrong?"
"I can't lift it," Nora explained, "I'm not strong enough."
Harrison's mouth formed an 'O' shape. "Hey Mouse, why don't we shift things around a bit. Nora can sit on Maxi's shoulders-don't give me that look, he's taller than you and she'll need the boost-and you come here to help me."
Mouse sighed, "Is there any way that I can finally get snuggles with my girl?" He asked in a teasing manner.
His wording made Nora blush, and a warm feeling spread through her chest. She was his girl. And then it hit her. Mouse was really like a father figure to her. And the other lifeguards were sort of like a really crazy band of aunt and uncles. They were all...family?
It had been a long time since Nora'd had family.
"Nora, you there?" Harrison waved his hand in front of Nora's face and she jumped.
"Oh! Sorry," She said, blushing again.
"Come here, Nora," Maxi said, gesturing for her to come over, "These lights won't hang themselves."
Nora blinked out of her trance and bounced over to Maxi, landing in front of him with a grin. Maxi laughed and leaned down, and a moment later Nora was squealing in surprise as she was tossed onto his shoulders.
Maxi grabbed her legs to hold her steady, and Nora leaned forward to reach for the lights. She grabbed the end and said, "Closer, Maxi, I can't reach."
"That's because you're a midget," Maxi teased.
Nora kicked his side and he grunted.
She leaned over again, wrapping the lights around the tree to the top, and arranging the branches so that the lights looked a little bit better. The pines were sharp, since it was a real tree, and Nora accidentally pricked a few of her fingers. A bit of blood dripped onto Maxi's head and he protested with a, "Hey, don't spit on me!"
"I didn't spit on you!" Nora retorted, "I dripped blood on you!"
"Oh, are you alright?"
"Yeah, I just pricked my finger on the needles."
"'Kay."
Nora worked quickly, wrapping the lights around the branches like she always did in the orphanage. "Done," She said when she finished.
"Really? That was fast," Maxi reached up, his massive hands wrapping around Nora and lifting her easily over his head and onto the ground. He ruffled her hair, and she grinned up at him, before turning to Mouse and Harrison to see what they were doing.
"Run and get the grease from my garage section, Nora," Mouse called.
Nora slipped around Maxi and out the front door, remembering the garage space that Mouse had shown her earlier in the week. He'd also shown her the two rooms that were now Harrison's and Maxi's. She'd thought that they were storage closets or something, so her surprise when she found out that they were actually rooms was immense.
Mouse had shown Nora where the oil was, in case they would ever need it for the door again. Which, according to Mouse, happened at least once or twice a week. But also according to Mouse, Nora was a good luck charm, so she figured that he had a slight tendency to exaggerate. No one had ever called her a good luck charm before.
She grabbed the can of oil and raced back up the stairs of the underground garage, shivering. Mouse said that it was so cold because a storm was coming. Nora, having been used to the heat after a month of it, didn't like the shift to cold weather. But, she was also used to cold, having lived in Nebraska and Iowa all her life. Bitterly frigid winters were a part of her growing up.
She would have wrapped her arms around herself, if she wasn't holding a sort of gross can of oil. Instead she settled for racing up the stairs as quickly as she could to get out of the cool temperatures. As she was doing that, something occurred to her. It had been a long time since she had gone out for a run.
It had been too hot, and Nora was afraid that she would have another episode and pass out. Or worse...another seizure. So, she'd refrained from her usual exercise regimen until it was cooler and she was therefore in less danger.
Nora opened the front door, where Mouse and Harrison had just finished setting the door on the rails. "Great timing, kiddo," Mouse said, jerking his head at her to come over.
Nora scurried over and opened the can of oil, "What do you need me to do?" She asked.
"Stay back so that if this thing drops it doesn't crush you," He replied.
Nora hopped out of the way and watched as Maxi helped Mouse and Harrison spread the oil over the rails. Someone had produced a hammer, which they were hitting the top of the door with to get it to snap back in place. It was loud, so Nora took her chance to slip away and grab a sweatshirt from her room.
She pulled one from her closet and yanked it on, not even checking to see what it had on the front. But she put it on backwards by accident, and she was in the middle of fixing it when the door opened and she heard what sounded suspiciously like Jesse's voice.
She stumbled down the hall, trying to fix her sweatshirt. But then her head got stuck and she was trapped and then the hall ended. She heard laughter, and then two hands grabbed her hoodie and shifted it around until her head was poking out of the right hole and her hands were sliding through the openings.
Nora came face to face with Jesse. He grinned at her and she giggled, blushing, "Hi Jesse!"
"Hey kiddo," Jesse ruffled her hair and then turned to the other guys, who were standing next to the door, still trying to fix it. "Hold on a minute, Nora," Jesse said, "I've got to go and give this group of idiots a hand."
Nora laughed again, "Can I help?"
"Positive encouragement and maybe a plate of cheese and crackers," Jesse responded, "But that door will crush you like a little bug if it falls, so stay back."
"Okay," Nora agreed, before jogging to the kitchen. She opened the fridge and pulled out a block of cheddar cheese, and then a knife from the cabinet, and began to slice.
When she finished, she grabbed a package of crackers from the pantry and opened them, sliding them neatly out of the sleeve and onto the plate. She put the leftover cheese block in the fridge, and dropped the knife in the dishwasher.
Just as she was turning around, Nora heard a loud thunk! sound that made her gasp and jump. She turned around and saw Mouse and Harrison straightening up. Maxi put the top on the oil can and Jesse wiped his hands, standing back. "See?" He said, "All you needed was some real man power and you're good to go."
Mouse and Harrison both started protesting immediately, while Maxi looked up indignantly and Nora burst into another fit of giggles.
"Well it's good that you find insults to our manlihood funny," Mouse protested when he saw her laughing. He had such an offended look on his face that Nora burst into peels of laughter so hard that her stomach began to hurt.
"Come on, are we going to finish off the tree?" Nora asked after a moment as she slid the cheese and crackers across the table.
"Oh-yeah. Well, we need to put the star on it, and then it's done. Come'ere, you," Mouse said, gesturing to her to come to him.
Nora scampered over, and Mouse grinned mischievously at her. He led her over to the tree and grabbed the star, handing it to her. "What do you say?" He asked, "Put the star on?"
Nora hesitated, "Well, it's your tree and the family of the house should be the one to put the star up," She protested.
Mouse smiled warmly at her and leaned down, scooping her into his arms like she weighed nothing. Which, to him, she probably did. "Well then let's put it on together," He told her softly, "As a family?"
The statement was phrased as a question. Mouse was asking Nora if she wanted to be his family. Nora had a choice. She could say yes, and put the star on but risk pain later...or she could say no, and let herself be rejected once again.
"As a family," Nora agreed.
Mouse walked right next to the tree and lifted her until she could reach the top of the tree. Nora reached up, and placed the star on the tippy top, making sure it was balanced.
"There," Mouse said as he turned away from the tree and grabbed a remote off of the mantel piece, "Now we're a family."
Nora hugged his neck, and then said, "Can you put me down now though?"
"Nope."