Janis was grateful the plane ride was relatively short. Two hours was enough for her to survive without vomiting once, Cady on the other hand clearly thought it was too short. Complaining that she didn't get to watch all the videos from her parents, so now she'd have to watch them throughout the trip. Janis was shocked to find that most of the videos so far had been much more action packed than the others, several of the videos they had watched on the plane were lions or cheetahs hunting. Which was definitely something she could get into watching more often. After disembarking the plane, which took longer than usual because Cady insisted she could get her own carry-on bags down herself when both Janis, her dad, and presumably anyone else on the plane with eyes could tell, knew that was a lie, and retrieving their bags from the carousel, they were released into the wild. Or rather, they'd officially landed in Georgia, the place of no return.
Her dad took the lead as the tallest, guiding them through crowds and looking for their ride, Uncle Craig. Normally Janis led them, while her dad checked through his emails and made any calls he needed to about work, this time however, Janis had to stay back or risk Cady getting lost in the sea of people.
"My Uncle Craig's the one picking us up. He's kind of like a straight, middle-aged, Damian."
"Craig, that's the one who's getting married, yes?"
"Yup, secret fiancee and all that," Janis stumbled and ran straight into her dad.
He nudged her, a smile clear on his face as he pointed ahead of them, "Wanna let Cady guess which one is our ride?"
Ahead of them there was several people with signs, clearly waiting for their respective family or friends or clients. One of them however was a 6ft tall man who, aside from his bleached blonde hair and thick mustache, would otherwise look like her dad was looking into a mirror. A mirror that changed his nice professional clothes to a ratty old baseball cap, a tacky blue hawaiian shirt, and khaki cargo shorts at least. In his hands was a hot pink poster board with "SNARK-isians" painted on in barely legible, glittery purple paint. He had made that sign when Janis was in middle school, when she had "officially denounced" all things "girly and pretty," and refused to use any other sign since when [picking them up for the holidays. There was also a small sheet of presumably loose leaf paper taped to the bottom of it with "AND KATIE" written in black sharpie.
Janis could hear Cady snickering behind her, even as her uncle was approaching them, arms open and a cocky grin on his face. Her dad wasted no time pulling his brother into a long hug, she forgot how close they used to be.
"Welcome home, little brother!"
"I'm ten minutes younger than you, Craig," The brothers parted and Craig quickly scooped Janis into a hug, "Yeah, exactly. You're the babiest brother. Also look at how tall your girl's gotten! She's almost as tall as us!"
Janis rolled her eyes, "And I'll be staying almost as tall, I'm 21, I won't be growing any taller anytime soon."
Craig ignored her, turning his attention to Cady next to Janis, she looked nervous and uncomfortable. She probably felt like she was intruding.
"And you must be Cady, I'm Craig. The handsome twin."
He reached out his hand to shake hers and Janis quietly thanked whoever was in charge that granted her uncle with the common sense to not just hug anyone and everyone without knowing their boundaries first. Cady's anxiety on the matter melted away, replaced with a sunshiney grin that made Janis' heart soar and- no, Cady's smile did not make Janis' heart soar, that wasn't right.
The others were oblivious to Janis' mental, totally platonic, crisis.
"You spelled my name wrong on your sign."
"It adds to the charm, I'm not making a new sign," He said matter-of-factly.
Craig grabbed two of their bags, one of Cady's and one of her dad's and led them out of the airport to a burgundy minivan.
"Never took you for a minivan guy, Craig," Janis' dad joked as they loaded the bags into the back.
"Of course not, Brandon. I'd never trade my corvette in my life, the van is our dear sweet mother's. She wanted to make sure we could fit everyone and all of your luggage, took my keys and everything. As if I'd let you into my baby to begin with."
Janis smiled, she could hear the smugness in her uncle's tone. As they all clambered into the van and began their trip to the house, Janis found herself relaxing and definitely beginning to forget why she was so worried about the trip at all. Cady was sitting next to her in the backseat, watching more videos from her parents with her head on Janis' shoulder and her freehand interlocked with Janis' between them. Her dad and uncle were chattering on about everything they could think of, how work as been, hobbies, if her dad had been seeing anyone (he hasn't), her dad tried asking about the Secret Fiancee but Craig dodged the question. Instead he just started singing along with whatever country song was playing on the radio and ignoring her dad's questions.
She never said he was good at dodging the questions.
Janis fell asleep for the rest of the ride, only woken up once they'd arrived at the house around noon. No one else met them outside to offer help with the bags, she was both surprised and not surprised. Maybe none of her cousins or her Aunt Leslie or Huggie were even there yet, although the idea of her aunt not being there was an eighth wonder in itself, she was always over there. Cady and Janis barely had time to set down their bags in the house before Craig was ushering them back out the front door.
"Ah, ah, ah! Janis, you know the rules!" He pointed at the top of the doorway where a piece of mistletoe was hug nicely above the threshold of the house with a neat little bow.
Fuck.
Cady was beet red and fiddling with her hands, she was likely trying to think of some kind of apology or something to get them out of the awkward situation. Only Janis knew better, no one got out of passing under the mistletoe as a couple. She lifted Cady's face by her chin and shot her an apologetic look, hopefully she understood the silent apology. It was a short and quick kiss, Cady barely had the time to reciprocate before Janis pulled away. Her heart was beating out of her chest but she couldn't risk her family finding out the truth. Cady would understand.
She made a mental note that Cady tasted like peppermint and vanilla, probably from the coffee she had on the way here.
Craig smiled and nodded, moving out of the way for the two girls to reenter the building. Immediately Janis heard the unmistakable, excited bounding of Rose running through the house towards them. Without missing a beat, Janis whipped around just in time to see the red setter jumping up on her. His fur graying so much he looked like he was wearing a white mask.
"Hey, buddy! Hey! I missed you too!" She was kneeling on the floor, holding the dog tightly, part of her had been worried he'd died between now and her last visit, "Have you been a good boy? Have you?"
She could hear her uncle, dad, and Cady laughing at her baby voice. Cady knelt down next to her, running a hand through Rose's fur. The old dog stopped jumping all over Janis in favor for sniffing the new person and licking her face. Cady giggled with glee, almost falling backwards when Rose shifted all of his weight onto her.
"Hello! How are you?" Leave it up to Cady to talk to animals like they'll respond back, "What's his name?"
"Rose. Janis named him, he's her dog after all."
"Oh! He's yours?" She was clearly trying to look at Janis, but Rose wouldn't sit still.
"Rose, down," Rose stopped jumping around and sat, looking back up at Janis expectantly, she began petting him softly, "Good boy. And yeah, I got him when I was like....eight. Our first apartment in Chicago had a not pets allowed rule though so we had to leave him here and we just...never really got around to bringing him up after we moved. We were always too busy or something."
"Is that my granddaughter I hear or am I just hearing things?" Janis stood up to see her grandfather walking out from the garage door, a big smile nearly hidden behind his grey beard.
He came to an abrupt stop in the middle of the room, his smile gone. He was looking at Cady, as she slowly stood up beside Janis, much to the disappointment of Rose who whined in response. Janis took Cady's hand in her own and cleared her throat, "This is...Cady, Pawpaw..."
The silence was tense and uncomfortable and Janis felt like it just might suffocate her. Her grip on Cady's hand got tighter as her grandfather moved closer to them. She could hear her dad shuffle awkwardly on his own feet, like he was getting ready to move between them and her grandfather. The old man had never been violent, but none of them really knew what to expect from him with this. He stopped at an arms-length away from the two of them, he smelled like sawdust and cigar smoke, he must've been working on something in the garage. He locked his grey eyes with Cady's for a moment, almost like a challenge of sorts. Janis held back a chuckle at the thought of that.
Soon enough, he made a move, laughing heartily and lifting Cady up in a hug. The smaller girl let out a squeak. This time Janis did laugh out loud, she heard her uncle and dad let out a breath they must've been holding.
"Name's Hugh. You already seem much better than the last...friend Janis brought over. Damian or something? He was so flamboyant! Not that he wasn't a good person, he seemed nice I suppose, but it's just hard with all the kids around," He was talking as he went through and hugged Janis and her dad, "You know how kids are, they're young, they just don't understand that kind of stuff!"
Janis let out a huff, she wasn't about to argue with the old man. He wouldn't listen even if she tried. And the kids understood just fine, if anything they understood too well because some of them would pretend not to understand around their parents.
She grabbed Cady's hand again, having let go when her grandfather began hugging everyone, "Hey, me and Cady are gonna go put our stuff up and get situated, which room do we have?"
Usually it was the room closest to her grandparents' room, it always was that room when she stayed over for as long as she could remember, but she had a feeling they might have decided to put her somewhere else since she had a girlfriend with her.
"Don't tell me you forgot where your room is? I know it's been a while, Jannie, but-"
Janis grabbed her bags as soon as her grandfather pulled out the old nickname, "No, nevermind. Forget I asked, we're leaving, bye! Don't take Rose for a walk without me, dad!"
"Wouldn't dream of it, Pumpkin!"
Cady awkwardly tailed behind Janis as she was guided through the hallways, Janis held the door to the room open for Cady to enter first. She was walking in small circles, trying to take in everything about the room. The walls were an off-white but had paintings of varying skill and detail lining them, the ceiling had glow in the dark stars and planets stuck to it, a few stains from where some had fallen off. The bed had a comforter with a pattern reminiscent of the tacky, bright-colored floors from bowling alleys or arcades.
"I like it, reminds me of all those old high school movies somehow?"
"It's called nostalgia, Cady, pretty sure you've heard of it," Janis set the bags down on the bed and laughed as Cady shoved her over the snide comment, "You can put your stuff in the bottom drawers of the dresser, I'll take the top two."
They began unpacking and organizing everything in silence, halfway through unpacking Janis realized there wasn't an air mattress on the floor. She got a sinking feeling in her gut, it's not like she and Cady never shared a bed before, but something about the idea that her family was expecting her to left a bad taste in her mouth about everything.
She was lying. To everyone. Her dad included.
Janis sat on the bed, fighting the urge to start biting her nails. She knows she flinched when Cady settled next to her, the added weight shifting the bed under her. Cady's hand rested on her shoulder, "You okay, Jan?"
"Yeah, I'm just...sorry about my grandpa."
"It's fine, honestly, I think I was expecting worse from him. But that's why I'm here! Help you deal with your family's crap. Besides, you know they're the ones in the wrong. There's nothin' wrong with you or me, and it's no one's problem but their own if they have a problem with who you are," She had a soft smile and a small part of Janis kind of wanted to kiss her.
But absolutely just in a friend way of course.
Instead, Janis pulled Cady into a tight hug. She wouldn't cry even though part of her felt like she might. She let out a heavy sigh, holding Cady closer and burying her face in her hair. She clearly had used Damian's shampoo this morning, she smelled like the overpowering citrus-y stuff their roommate used religiously, and Janis couldn't help but laugh.
"What?"
"Nothing, you just...you used Dam's shampoo instead of your own again. I wonder if you packed the wrong one as well," They parted and Cady looked confused, she grabbed a chunk of her own hair and brought it up to her face to smell it herself, "Oh my god, he's going to kill me when we get back to Chicago!"
They laughed for a while more before Janis spoke up again, "Thank you...by the way."
"For what?"
"Just for...like what you said and all."
Cady looked bashful, "Oh, please. I just told you what you already know. But if you want, you can thank me by taking me a tour of this quaint little town."
Janis laughed again, "Tomorrow. Today, I'm just going to sleep the time away. After we walk Rose at least, his walk is at one every day."
"Oh, he has a schedule, huh?"
"Of course he has a schedule. He's almost 13, we've got to make sure he's getting his exercise in," Janis suddenly remembered she was supposed to text Damian after they landed, "Tell you what, we can take him for an early walk if you want. Go ask my dad for helping getting his harness on, I'll finish unpacking and meet you guys outside."
"Deal," A quick fistbump and then Cady was out of the room.
Janis pulled out her phone, shooting a text to Damian and praying he'd reply quickly.
maleficent's wife: sorry, we landed like two hours ago
maleficent's wife: we've been unpacking and stuff
disaster gay: its ok
disaster gay: so why the fuck did ur dad call caddy a "lucky girl" huh?
maleficent's wife: listen, you can't tell this to ANYONE okay? not even Caddy
disaster gay: ok ok miss dramatic just spill the tea already or ill ask brandon
maleficent's wife: ew don't call my dad by his first name
maleficent's wife: okay but listen, my family's under the impression that Cady's my girlfriend...
disaster gay: EXCUSEZ MOI????
maleficent's wife: I just wanted to prove to them it's not just a phase!!! it's just like a dumb prank it's fine!!!
disaster gay: it better b fine!!! did u tell caddy????
Janis stopped for a moment, she's pretty sure Cady knows. She had offered to play the part herself, sure they didn't have any in-depth conversation or planning go into it, but Janis was fairly sure Cady wasn't so oblivious to not realize that her family thought they were dating. Not after the mistletoe or meeting Janis' grandfather at least.
maleficent's wife: yes??? of course??? it was her idea Actually
disaster gay: hm ok
disaster gay: ur safe for now but ur on thin fucking ice sarkisian ttyl
maleficent's wife: okay Mr.Dramatic
maleficent's wife: I'll text you if anything crazy happens
Her conversation with Damian now out of the way, Janis rushed to finish putting away the remaining pieces of clothing. She met Cady and her dad outside, Cady was holding the leash. Rose immediately attempted to run to her once he saw her come out the door, nearly pulling Cady down. Janis reminded herself again that everything would be fine. Cady was her best friend and while this may be a little awkward and mildly uncomfortable at times, nothing was gonna come between them. Not since the entirety of their junior year at least.