Hii guys...I'm earlier for the update this time! But this might be the last time I will update frequently, because next week, I have exams. So I'll see you after the exams. Okay?
I have no idea how I feel about this chapter...BUT I LOVED WRITING IT. Let the ending bring a silly smile to your face. DON'T IMMEDIATELY SCROLL DOWN TO THE END AND TRY TO SPOIL YOURSELF.
Word Count: 4,175 words.
CHAPTER THE EIGHT
EVELINA SENCEN
"You're here," greeted Edaline, flashing Evelina and her family a bright, warm smile. Her turquoise eyes shone and her deep amber hair sashayed from side to side as she made her way toward them.
Sophie closed the distance between her adoptive parents as she neared for a hug. "It feels so good to be home," she mumbled, her voice muffled in the fabrics of the clothes Grady and Edaline were wearing.
Keefe and Dex joined in the hug, and Evelina and Hywel were left there standing awkwardly in a corner, watching their parents hug each other.
Luckily, the awkwardness was cut clean by the entrance of Biana. She beamed radiantly at all of them.
"Where's Fitz?" asked Keefe as he waved to her.
Biana didn't meet Sophie's eyes as she said, "He'll be here soon. He told me that he was still getting prepared for . . . he was still getting prepared dressing up."
Sophie and Keefe didn't look convinced, and Evelina felt the same way as them. Whatever Fitz was getting prepared for, it sure wasn't dressing up.
Terrentia bounded in, her auburn waves bouncing up and down. "Hello, Lord Ruewen, Lady Ruewen," she said politely. Then she caught sight of Evelina and Hywel. "Same to you, Lord Sencen, Lady Sencen, and Lord Dizznee. Where's Lady Dizznee?"
Dex glanced behind him. "I think she'll be here in a short moment. She's talking to her brother at their house right now."
"Wait, if Tam's coming, does that mean Myst is coming too?" asked Evelina.
Sophie nodded.
"Why can't Gandalf come too, then?"
Sophie turned away. "You really want me, of all people, to talk to Stina?"
"I don't really mind her," argued Evelina. "As long Gandalf comes, it's all right—I can withstand it."
"And this is a family reunion or gathering or whatever, right?" Terrentia interrupted. "Gandalf is my distant cousin—surely he can be counted as family. And no matter how bad Aunt Stina can be, she's still good."
Keefe let out a very ungraceful snort, and Sophie elbowed him. "Ow," he whispered.
Sophie smiled. "Fine. I'll go contact Stina. But next time, I'll get Keefe to do it."
"Foster, you can't do this to me . . ." Keefe pouted, widening his eyes and pushing out his lips in an attempt to act and look cute. Sophie looked slightly mollified for a second, before quickly returning to a stern face.
"Shhh." She put a finger on her lips as she pulled out her Imparter and said, "Show me Stina."
The crystal screen on the Imparter clouded over for a few short moments, then cleared up to reveal a scowling face.
"What do you want?"
Sophie's face showed no change of emotion as she said, "Evelina and Terrentia wish to request your son's presence at Havenfield right now. It is a family gathering, and since you are distantly related to Terrentia, so is your son—"
"What blather," Stina grumbled, running her hand absentmindedly through her curly, frizzy hair. "Why not invite the whole population of the Lost Cities while you're at it, since we're distantly related?"
"Speak to Gandalf about this, and let him choose his own decision," Sophie stated blandly, and killed the call.
"Hey—"
Stina's voice cut off in the middle of her sentence, and all faded to silence. Suddenly, Sophie began to laugh. Her laughter pealed through the air, and Evelina winced at it. She rarely heard her mother laugh.
"Hadn't spoken to Stina for such a long time," her mother said between chuckles. "Forgotten how satisfying it is."
Keefe high-fived her. "That's why you need me, Foster."
Dex added, "And me."
Biana quickly cut in, "Not forgetting me!"
"Us, too!"
Evelina whirled around to see four elves walk toward them. They were Myst, Myst's father, Myst's father's sister, and . . .
Evelina's jaw tightened as Fitz neared.
"Where's Ailill and Brennus?" she asked.
Sophie frowned and clicked her tongue at her daughter, but she was avoiding Fitz's eyes as she reprimanded, "Evelina, is that how you greet your elders?"
Evelina's cheeks flushed. "Ah. Oh. Sorry. Of course not." She lifted the two ends of her skirt, and dipped a little graceful curtsy. "Hello, Lord Song and Lady Dizznee."
"Call me Linh," Hywel's mother corrected her, flashing a beautiful smile. She had jet black hair with the ends dipped in silver, and the palest of blue for the colour of her almond shaped eyes. Her brother, Tam, had the same eyes and hair, but he had a fierce expression that distinguished him from his twin, who had a gentle one. Evelina started to feel a little uncomfortable—she had only met Tam and Linh once, and that was when she was nine.
"You've grown so big," Linh commented, her eyes doing an once-over on Evelina. Beside Linh, Evelina could feel Tam doing the exact same thing too.
"Evelina . . ." Tam started. Evelina whipped her head up, but she couldn't exactly meet his eyes.
"Yes?" Evelina asked, then cleared her throat, and asked her question in a more polite tone, "Yes?"
"You forgot to greet Fitz."
Oh! So Tam caught that. And from the way he emphasized the word 'forgot', both Evelina and he knew that it wasn't anything close to forgetting.
Evelina forced a smile, and tried to make it look as sheepish as possible. "Oh! My mistake. Sorry." She bowed quickly to Fitz. "Greetings . . . Lord Vacker."
Fitz nodded curtly at her greeting. Inside, Evelina felt miserable. She could feel everyone's stares on her, and she wasn't quite liking being in the centre of attention, in the limelight. Oh why, why did Tam have to embarrass her?
Grady cleared his throat, the same time when Edaline clapped her hands together. They stared at each other incredulously.
"Well . . ." Edaline started, but trailed off when the doorbell rang. "Well . . . I'll go get it." She brisk-walked to the door, and pulled it open. Evelina purposely avoided everyone's stares on her and turned her head to look at the door instead. To her relief, Ailill, Gandalf, and Brennus walked inside, looking a little shy and unsure.
"Great!" Grady clapped his hands together like Edaline had done, probably an awkward attempt to brighten things up and clear the tension. "All of us are here. I understand you kids must be feeling quite confused over this, because it's the first time ever that we've done this. But as Edaline and I explain to you, won't you care to come to the kitchen and have some custard bursts and mallowmelt?"
"Yes, please," Sophie said in a rush, then blushed. "Um, I mean, yeah, of course, sure. I'll love to."
Keefe laughed. "Twenty years and Foster's still as awkward as ever."
Sophie shot him a look. "Twenty years and you're still as childish as ever."
"Awww Foster, you know you love me."
In the corner of her eye, Evelina thought she saw Fitz stiffen ever so slightly.
Heat creeped up Sophie's cheeks.
Tam rolled his eyes. "Can you two quit flirting for a moment?"
Sophie blushed even harder.
Biana laughed out loud. "Ah, the good old days."
Gandalf elbowed Evelina. "Are your parents always like that?" he whispered.
Evelina nodded. "They never stop." But honestly, this was one of the few times she ever saw them act so . . . carefree. Like they didn't have a care in the world. Evelina clutched her chest with her right hand, at the spot where her heart was beating. Suddenly, looking back at her life, Evelina felt very empty and lonely inside of her.
*
"A dance?" Evelina yelled, shooting up from her seat abruptly. When everybody's eyes switched to her, she sat down sheepishly. But she was still reeling.
"Have any problem with that, Evelina?" asked Tam. Linh kicked him under the table, but his facial expression didn't change. Suddenly, Evelina felt very irritated. What was Tam's problem? From Sophie's rambles about Tam and Linh, she knew that Tam and Linh had a hard past, and because of it Tam could be really edgy and suspicious sometimes. But what did she do wrong?
Inwardly, Evelina seethed. But on the outside, she merely contained her rage and said calmly, "No, not at all. I just overreacted—like, I've never been to a dance, and I was just a little surprised."
Evelina, it was more than a little surprised . . .
Evelina glanced quickly at Fitz, then transmitted back, as you know, I don't care about your views, father of a jerkface.
Fitz clamped his hand on his mouth. Just then, Sophie looked away from him, and that was when Evelina realised that her mother had been staring at Fitz.
Oh no-please don't tell me they're going to get together again—or else I seriously will . . .
Well, Evelina didn't know what she would do, but it would be something horrible.
"So yes, we were saying, this is a dance," Grady started again. Evelina threw him an apologetic look, and he continued without noticing it, "I know that it's short notice—"
A dance.
"—and you all are not prepared—"
Oh my gosh, a dance.
"—but that's the reason we told you to dress much more formally than before—"
A freaking dance.
"—and be assured, we prepared lots of food for the occasion, and you need not dance—"
Thank you so much! I don't have to dance!
"—anymore after you have had at least one dance."
Wait, WHAT?!
Evelina slumped her head on the table. She didn't like dancing. Unless maybe it was dancing with . . .
Shut your stupid thoughts up, Evelina. The Ultimate Jerkface is not an option.
"Evelina, are you quite all right?"
She waved her hand, then let it fall onto the table, almost knocking down a glass of lushberry juice. "Proceed with the dance without me. You won't miss me, and I won't miss you either. Isn't that a blissful solution to all of our problems?"
"That would be rather impossible." Tam's voice filtered through her ears.
"You said it would be rather impossible. You didn't say that it was completely impossible. So . . . leave me alone in peace?"
"Evelina, have some family bonding spirit. At least dance one dance? I know dancing isn't really what you like—"
"What a great understatement."
She heard Sophie sigh. "Come on, Evelina. One dance can't be much torture, can it?"
"I now present you the title of the Greatest Maker of Understatements. And bye."
"Evelina—" she heard Brennus say, and she almost groaned—and not because she found him annoying. She was too afraid that if she listened to him, she would feel complied again to dance with him. And that was definitely not happening.
A sting of sadness and injustice stabbed at her heart. Of all people she could fall for, why in the world did she just have to fall for Fitz Vacker's son? It would cause a whole lot of problems, not only just for her, but for Sophie too. Evelina was never, ever forgetting the intense pain on her face earlier this day when she had exploded out at her. It was a memory that would stay implanted in her mind forever.
"Uh-uh, you are so not getting into this matter, jerkface." Evelina hated the way her voice cracked as she said it.
"Eva, come on," whined Ailill, his voice going up a few octaves.
"Yeah, Lina," Terrentia, Myst, Hywel, and Gandalf joined in with Ailill's voice, and she almost went deaf.
Evelina paused for a moment, trying to ignore Ailill tugging on her hand. "Fine. But let me warn you, I won't enjoy it."
She had no idea how true her words were until she really experienced them.
*
"Hold still," Myst said irritably as she pulled another strand of Evelina's golden hair into the intricate braid she was weaving out of. Evelina tried in vain to squash the irresistible temptation to fidget, and her toes twitched in the heels that Terrentia had given her.
"Why do I have to change my attire and everything?" she complained. "I'm not going to be dancing. Never. Ever."
"And why do you hate dancing so much?" asked Terrentia—a little too sharply—heading for the door. "Hold on, Mystie-girl. I'm going to ask my mum for fashion advice."
"Just so you know, I'm not going to dance with Jerkface and I don't want to," Evelina called out.
Myst rolled her eyes. "Nobody said anything about Brennus this time, okay? Ooh, looks like someone's been thinking about him!"
"S—shut up!" Evelina flushed as she squirmed in her seat.
Gosh, I sound so much like a lovesick puppy.
Myst smirked. "Go on, go on. I wanna hear more about Jerkface. Anything interesting happen?"
"Even if something like that did, do you really think I will tell you?"
"Well." Myst shrugged. "Terre and I don't really care about your Brevelina love life anymore. Like, who would want to be with a guy that abuses his own brother?" She yanked on Evelina's hair, making Evelina wince in pain.
"He's jealous of Ailill, because Ailill was adopted and yet he gets all the attention from Aurelia. Take it easy on him."
Suddenly, Myst stood up. "There you go again," she said through gritted teeth. "Brennus this, Brennus that. Take it easy on him, when it's clearly him who's in the wrong. Seriously, anyone who's not blinded by love can see that."
Evelina flushed, both angry and humiliated. A sense of injustice and unfairness washed over her as she curled her hands into fists, digging hard into the soft couch. "I don't love Brennus," she said, but she wondered if that was the truth or not.
Nonsense! Love? Myst doesn't know the seriousness of throwing that word around like an accusation!
"Really? So after the Everglen incident, why are you hanging out with him more than us now? I thought you hated him. I thought you would actually wake up then and realise fully that he's not worth your time." Myst released Evelina's hair, one strand by one strand, letting them fall back sadly and slowly. "Terrentia and I only forced makeup on you, encouraged you so to go and meet with Brennus all pretty and dolled up because we wanted you to see the truth. Then you would say that before the whole thing happened, you two were total strangers. But Evelina, I know. I know you too well. And I've seen it before, too. You might not have noticed it yourself, but you'd been stealing glances at him all the time, and vice versa." Myst's eyes softened, then hardened again as they met Evelina's shocked and hurt ones. "Oh, and one more thing: don't use Ailill as an excuse to see Brennus again."
She turned away from Evelina and exited the bedroom.
The door banged close with a resounding thud. Evelina just sat there, staring at herself in the mirror, with her messed-up hair and half-done makeup, staring at blank space.
She might have been waiting for Terrentia to come, but Terrentia never came. And for the second time this day, Evelina felt completely and utterly alone.
Evelina didn't understand why Myst was angry at her. Sure, Myst had implied that she thought that Evelina was spending too much time with Brennus and too little time with them, but even though that was kind of the truth, Evelina still valued their friendship no less. Why couldn't Myst understand that?
Maybe because she was too blinded with jealousy.
Hot tears welled up in Evelina's eyes and spilled, streaming down her cheeks. She did have a crush on Brennus, which she couldn't deny. But whoever was Myst to proclaim that she was in love with him? Did she think being her best friend gave her the authority to jump to conclusions by simply 'reading' her?
But Evelina, I know. I know you too well.
"You don't know me," whispered Evelina, so soft that even she herself had to strain her ears to catch her voice. She stared at herself in the mirror. "You don't know my heart. You don't know anything. You're just judging me because I can't be there for you all the time. You're just judging me because you believe that what you think I am is the truth. But you're dead wrong." She ran a comb through her wavy hair slowly, then rubbed off the makeup on her face. "So what if I like Brennus? Just because I'm willing to give him another chance to prove himself worthy doesn't mean that I love him. Just because I defended a guy that you disapprove of doesn't mean I'm obsessed with him. If only you were a Telepath . . ."
After spouting all her words that came pouring out from her heart, Evelina felt much, much better.
And that was when Evelina finally understood how Sophie felt when she demanded answers from her and threw accusations at her.
Her fingers flew up to the Sencen family crest that her mother had kissed ever so tenderly, fingering every edge and curve of it, her family, herself.
That was right—she was Evelina Sencen, proud daughter of Keefe Sencen and Sophie Foster, and she wasn't just going to break down because of other people's judgements.
*
"Evelina, where were you?" Ailill asked concernedly. "You look like you've been crying."
Evelina shrugged. "Everything's okay. Just that something caught in my eye, and it hurt so badly before I managed to get it out."
"So you're alright now?" he inquired.
She forced herself to smile. "Yup. So how's things going here?" She looked around her. They were in the living room right now, but almost everybody else was outside dancing. Her hand gripped a glass of lushberry juice shakily as she stared out at Myst and Terrentia.
Ailill didn't seem to notice her discomfort as he said, "It's kind of boring. Dex danced with Linh, which was kind of cute to watch. Your mother danced with your father. And Father's been sitting far away from them for a very long time now. Maybe because Mum's not here, he doesn't feel very comfortable. Brennus's sitting with him too."
Evelina squinted. "Huh—Gandalf is waltzing with Myst."
Myst, you're one to talk. You're willingly having your own fair share of 'love'. But of course, you probably don't know I'm here, half-spying on you.
Despite the spiteful and malice-filled thoughts that were swarming around her head, deep down, Evelina actually felt really bad. And a little miserable too. She still didn't know how to talk to Myst. Or Terrentia, in that case.
"Yeah." Ailill shielded his eyes with his hand. "Blinds me. You want to go outside—OH MY GOSH. WHAT IN THE WORLD IS—"
"Kindly lower your volume," Evelina said, feeling a little lazy after the whole big fight with Myst.
"No, seriously, Eva! Look outside. YOUR MUM AND MY DAD ARE DANCING."
"Wait, really?" Evelina scrambled up from her seat, her senses heightened and her mind awakened once again. Her systems blasted to full speed as she scanned her eyes around the dark pastures. Then she caught sight of Sophie and Fitz, their arms wrapped around each other tightly, slowly moving to the faint music that was drifting in from the outside. She gaped, her jaw falling slack. "You have got to be kidding me! Are they really going to creepily end up together?"
"Eww, no! I mean, no offense to your mum or anything—she's super nice—but still. You get what I mean, right?"
"What do you mean, I get what you mean?" Evelina kicked her couch out of the way and slammed the glass down on the kitchen cabinet, spilling some of the lushberry juice.
"Hey, no fair! That was perfectly good juice!"
"Ai! Something totally weird and creepy that must be halted immediately is happening right at this moment, and you're talking about some wasted lushberry juice?" Evelina grabbed Ailill's hand, and bolted out of the mansion. Ailill screamed like a scared little girl all the way out, and Evelina squashed the urge to smother him.
"Ai, keep your volume down. How many times do I have to tell you that?! You know, I thought you were a quiet and obedient child. Never knew you were quite the opposite. Hmmm . . . never mind." They raced out of the door, and the little strands of green grass tickled Evelina's feet as they made their way to the majestic tree, where Sophie and Fitz were dancing under. Evelina's only thoughts as they climbed to the top of the hill: Must stop them . . . this can't be really happening . . . is Mum going to ditch Dad like how Dad ditched Foxfire lessons in the past . . . and is Fitz going to do that to Aurelia too?
"Um, Eva?" Ailill asked once they reached the top of the hill. Sophie and Fitz were mere inches away from them, but they were too absorbed in each other to notice their children. "What are we going to do?"
Evelina picked up a beautiful blossom that had dropped from the tree and parted its petals slightly. "What do you think we're going to do?"
Ailill shrugged, but the moonlight and starlight illuminated his face. And by the expression on his face, Evelina knew he was catching on. But he needed to be faster.
"Okay, just look, Ai." Evelina held up the purple-pink blossom, keeping her voice down to a soft, raspy whisper. "Imagine this Panakes blossom is the relationship of Sophie and Fitz."
"They have a relationship?"
"Unfortunately, yes. They were actually together in the past . . . but for some reason I want to know, they broke up, and it became . . . you know, it became me. And Brennus. If you know what I mean."
"No, I don't know what I mean."
"Shush! Great, half of the song is already gone. We've got to hurry. I'll explain the whole thing later, just know it's bad. And creepy. And uncalled for."
"I can see that." Ailill stole a glance at Sophie and Fitz, and shuddered.
"All right. This"—Evelina held up the blossom-"is their relationship. And this"-she parted the petals and tore the blossom into half-"is what we want to do. I mean, without hurting anyone, of course. This is a really lame example."
"Three-quarter of the song is gone," Ailill duly noted. "So what are we going to do to—um, tear the flower?"
"Mutilate whatever remnants of rebellious spirit each side might have."
"You know I have no idea what you just said."
"Never mind. It's simple. Just create a diversion. I'll—"
Ailill interrupted her. "I'm no good at creating diversions."
Evelina let out a sigh. "Should've known. All right. I'll do a diversion. But what?"
"That's for you to figure out. Last part of the song coming up!" Ailill said frantically. "It's now or never, Eva."
"Right. You go . . . um, I don't know, get some help or something. In case I do something silly."
"Which you better not."
"Which I better not," Evelina agreed. "All right!"
But as she neared Sophie and Fitz, who were still waltzing, she realised she had no idea what to say to make the two of them separate from each other. Her mind was blank and her throat was dry. However, it was as if there was a certain mysterious force that was controlling her and guiding her what to say.
Evelina bit her lip. "Hey, Mum. Hey, Fitz."
They didn't seem to hear, or see her, and continued dancing. The very last part of the song came on, fast-paced and intense. Fitz started to twirl Sophie around. Evelina closed her eyes for a second. She could hear Ailill screaming, "What are you doing?!" But his voice never reached her brain for it to process his words.
Suddenly, a shadow crossed Evelina's path. She looked up, rather shyly.
"Brennus?" his name crossed her lips, much softer than she had intended.
"No 'jerkface'?" Brennus smiled a little, the moonlight lightening his features.
Evelina grinned to herself as the stupidest idea she had ever thought of came to mind—and without thinking, she grabbed Brennus by the collar and pulled him close to her.
Her breath hitched when her eyes met his beautiful teal ones, only mere inches away. Their toes were almost touching, and Evelina could feel Brennus's warm and slightly ragged breath on her cheeks. And for a moment, she forgot all about Myst and Terrentia, and Sophie and Fitz. And for a moment, she didn't care that Brennus was Fitz's son, and what this could mean or what this could lead to.
"Trust me," she whispered gently as she tilted her head sideways slowly and brought her lips to his.