Dedicated to Jayme, my honorary older brother. I remember the first time we met, we weren't exactly fond of each other, well it's been one and half years now and we've both come a long way.
Chapter 4 : Skylar Carson, Life Before Fame
We let Q drive, no questions asked. We all knew she was the calmest person during these kind of panicking situations. Q was the one to calm us all down for our drivers’ test. Let’s be honest, the Carson siblings were terrified of the mere thought of driving a metal contraption; we got the fear from Dad. Q was scared too but she could keep her emotions in check and kept all of us calm throughout the entire thing. You could throw my sister into a horror movie and she’d survive it without breaking a sweat. The only time Q ever freaks out is when her art supplies run out or when Dyl and Blake ruin her paintings. Other than that, my sister is the calmest and most encouraging person you’ll ever meet during panic situations.
She held my hand the entire drive to the hospital. I couldn’t stop hyperventilating, I mean this is our mother you’re talking about. As far as anyone was concerned I felt the most connected to her. We were so alike that we might as well be the same person, except that she’s older. Bottom line, I can’t afford to lose her, at especially at the peak of my years. The moment we reached the hospital, Q recklessly parked the car (mind you, my sister is never reckless about anything), we all exited the car faster than you could say Impala and made our way to Mom’s room. We ran down the hallway to get to Mom’s room but we soon stopped short when we saw Dad and Aunt Qis sitting outside the room, looking miserable. I can only imagine what they were going through. Dad loved Mom so much and Aunt Qis grew up with her, it must hurt to know she tried to kill herself.
The two of them looked up and their facial expressions said it all; they were relieved to see us. I walked over to Dad and practically collapsed on him. I grabbed a fistful of his shirt and cried my heart out against his chest until I was sure I made a prominent tear spot on his shirt. Dad, always being as helpful as ever, comforted me the entire time. Q had turned to the comfort of Aunt Qis. The boys were trying their hardest not to break down. Our comforting and sobbing fest was over almost as soon as it had started when two strangers I didn’t recognize rudely interrupted us. Dad seemed to recognize them since he stiffened at the sight of them, so did Aunt Qis. Dad stood there gaping at them while Aunt Qis walked towards to the lady and slapped her across the face.
“You have no right to be here, bitch. Same goes for you.” Aunt Qis growled at them. Whatever these two did to her must have been one hell of a disaster. I couldn’t help but stare at the couple. They seemed awfully familiar and really classy. They were even dressed up classy.
“Don’t talk to me like that, Darling. You might want to be careful.” Her voice was annoyingly nasally. So it made her ‘Darling’ sound like ‘DAH-ling’, which added to her annoying factor. Aunt Qis moved closer to her and whisper something fiercely. It was probably something really vulgar and was a threat because once Aunt Qis walked away her, the lady looked like she had seen a ghost. She tugged her partner by the arm,
“Wes, let’s get out of here, clearly we don’t belong.” She sneered at Aunt Qis and walked off. The Wes guy, however, decided to let go of the lady and stayed behind. He walked to Dad and offered his condolences.
“She’s not dead, is she now? So why the hell are you even offering condolences?” I stood up, bravely asking him. He raised his eyebrows at me and studied me. He turned to Dad,
“This is your daughter I assume, Dylan?” Dad nodded proudly,
“Yeah, my oldest, looks just like her mother, doesn’t she.” Wes muttered in agreement. He came closer to me and held out his hand for me to shake. I crossed my arms across my chest and looked at him expectantly. He let his hand fall to his side.
“You don’t only look just like her, you’re stubborn just like her. I’m Wesley Smith, I knew your mother when she was your age. Might I add that you’re a splitting image of her.” I nodded to indicate that I was bored but on the inside was practically bouncing with excited. This guy knew my mother when she was my age. I could ask him everything about her teenage years.
***
“Then, he told me to grow up! How could he? What did I do wrong…sigh Cass I don’t know what to do anymore!” Skylar recounted what had happened earlier in the afternoon between Wes and her. Cassandra Nolan was Skylar’s best friend and one of the most popular girls in school because of her father, Daniel Nolan, the owner of Nolan Stables, one of the most lucrative local animal stable. Cassandra nodded with sympathy and rubbed the side of Skylar’s arm comfortingly.
“Hey, he’s a jerk alright? Don’t worry about him, he’s probably being a douche.” She stretched over to her nightstand and grabbed her stash of break up candy. This wasn’t necessarily a break up but it was close to one. You see, Skylar fancied Wesley ever since they had met. She was certain he felt the same but obviously that wasn’t the case. Cassandra knew about this being Skylar’s closest friend.
Cassandra and Skylar first met in primary school when they were both 10, they instantly clicked due to their love of books and their mixed heritage. Cass was half American, half Indian while Skylar was half English, half Indian. Ever since then, they were inseparable. Even in their group of friends, which consisted of Ellie, Reyna and the two of them, those two were the closest. Cass was the one who pulled Skylar out of her shell, which was why Skylar mostly trusted Cass and kept her guard up with the rest of her classmates.
Little did Skylar know that, Cass was the one who gave her everything and at the same time, she had the power to take everything away. Cass stole Wes from right under her nose a few years later and Skylar had no idea until she got the invite to their engagement party.
***
“Vanellope Carson. Not so nice to meet you. If Mom never mentioned you, she probably hates you so don’t take a personal offence if I’m being impolite.” I told him after violently debating internally with myself about whether I should talk to him or not. His light eyes reminded me of Henry’s so which essentially swayed me to at least talk to the guy. He seemed impressed enough that I was such a headstrong person, just like my mother. I internally smiled at myself for being like Mom. I excused myself from him and went over to sit with my family. Minutes later, the doctor came out looking grim.
“Family of Skylar Carson?” Dad and Aunt Qis immediately stood up.
“Good news, is that she is no longer in critical condition. Bad news is that she is in a sleep-induced coma to help her rest and she will not wake up for at least another day or so. Only family members are allowed to visit; two people in the room at a time.” He told us and with that, Dad and Aunt Qis rushed into the room without another word. Blake and I decided to take a peek inside the room from the small window on the door while Dyl and Q were sleeping. The moment I peaked in, I immediately felt depressed. Mom was on the bed, looking paler than usual (mind she’s half Indian so she isn’t exactly the palest person around), Dad was clutching on to her hand hanging on to her for his dear life, now that was love, you could see my Dad’s love for her in her eyes and Aunt Qis was cussing under her breath and I could practically hear her threating Mom if she doesn’t wake up. I stepped away from the window to give Dad and Aunt Qis some space even though I wasn’t technically invading their personal space but it felt like I was intruding on something personal.
I opted to join my other two siblings for a nap while Blake decided to take a walk. Blake was always the type who could never sit still. For as long as I could remember Blake and I were the closest to each other out of the four of us. We were all pretty close but Blake and I were close. Close as in he knew exactly when my period would roll around so that he’d get ready the goodies and not have to deal with an unhappy, moody me. We were so close, I’m the only one who knows about the first time he got a boner; hell, I had to be the one to explain what it was to him because I was the most mature and well read out of all my siblings. To say it was the most horrifying and awkward conversation to have with my brother was the understatement of the year.
We were so close that it was no surprise he brought me back some proper coffee from Starbucks after his walk. I grinned so widely at him, my cheeks started to hurt.
“Honestly, I have no idea if you’re happy to see me or the coffee.” He joked as he ruffled my hair and passed me the warm cup.
“Caramel Macchiato with extra caramel and two packets of sugar, just the way you like, Vanny.” I roll my eyes at his stupid nickname but didn’t say anything about it because I’ve decided to embrace it. I took the coffee gratefully and patted the seat beside me for Blake to sit. He looked at me with a mock shocked face,
“Ohmygod, no snarky comment about your nickname and you’re offering me a seat! Who are you and what have you done to my sister?” He slapped a hand across his face for effect. I punch his arm lightly,
“Sit down before I change my mind, doofus.” I retort. He seemed to make a show of relaxing visibly. He took a seat and grinned at me.
“Now that’s more like it.” He wrapped his arm around me and I rested my head on his shoulder. It was a comforting gesture; Blake and I never had moments like this because whenever it involved Blake and me it was always us playing pranks on each other, wrestling or water fights. I let out a heavy sigh,
“Blake, I’m worried about Mom. I know she’s fine but what if she slips into an actual coma and you know…” I couldn’t even finish my sentence. This was a bad habit of mine, I would always see the worst of the situation whenever I was stuck in a bad situation.
***
Skylar would always see the worst of every situation that didn’t going according to plan. It was her worst habit. She definitely did not take it well when her 18th birthday rolled around and Wes and Cassandra were nowhere to be found. She had her entire class invited to her 18th birthday party. While she was worrying herself to death, her frenemy, Qistina walked towards her.
“Hey, you alright?” Skylar rubbed her red eyes and turned to glare at her.
“Why do you care? You don’t even like Cassandra or me. You even hate me because I’m friends with Cassandra.”
“I do care, dummy. It’s Cassandra that I don’t trust.”.Skylar raised her eyebrows at the quirky girl in front of her. Qistina was the type of girl who wasn’t afraid to speak her mind. She was the class president; responsible and mature for her age just like Skylar, only difference was that Skylar was the most reckless person around. Qistina respected authority on the other hand. Qistina’s hamartia, however, was that she had quite the temper. There was a time she actually flung a chair at someone.
Skylar and Qistina were classmates since they started high school and were friends until something happened between Cassandra and Qistina, which caused Qistina to be distrustful of Cassandra, and kept her distance from Skylar. When Skylar fist realized that Qistina was avoiding her, she felt hurt and upset and decided to cut off Qistina as well. That’s how they ended up being frenemies.
“Skylar! Mom’s calling you.” Sebastian, her younger brother by 4 years, entered her room. Skylar turned to him and he frowned at her once he saw that she was crying.
“You alright, sis?” he asked, feeling concerned.
“Yeah, completely fine. Tell Mom I’ll be down in a minute.” She said, cutting him off. She always did this to her brothers. Whenever they were actually concerned about her, she would brush them off because she grew up with them always mistreating her and she grew up practically raising them so now they had matured, they were more conscious of her feelings now but she decided to shut them out completely. She watched as her brother left the room, and then she turned back to Qistina who was holding a tissue for Skylar to dry her eyes with.
“Thanks…but don’t think we’re instant besties now.” Skylar told Qistina trying to sound cold but it didn’t work. Qistina just laughed it off,
“Okay, okay.” she raised her hands up in surrender.
Little did they know that tonight was the night that all of that was about to change.
***
“Vanny! Vanny! Vanny!!” I heard someone yelling my name. I woke up with a jolt. I must have fallen asleep after talking to Blake about how worried I was about Mom.
“What? What?” I asked, feeling really confused. I blinked to focus my eyes and saw Dyl shaking me away. I was pretty surprised that it was Dyl waking me up and not Blake.
“Blake’s with Mom, that’s why I woke you up instead of him.” Dyl was really the psychic of the family, he knew exactly what everyone was thinking with just one look at us.
“Yeah I know I’m psychic.” He smirked. I gave him my signature eye roll and gave him a light shove.
“Show off. Anyways can I see Mom?” He nodded and pulled me out of my chair. He popped his head into her room and told Blake and Q to get out because I wanted to see her. Apparently everyone had gone and seen Mom while I was asleep. According to them, no one wanted to wake me up. Blake came out and gave me a weak smile. He was worried about Mom just as much as I was.
“Remind me later to tell you about the hissy fit Mom threw when the Wes guy was visiting her room.” He whispered in my ear just he left the room and I entered. Mom was staring out the window when I came in; it was only then I realized I had slept the day away, it was dark out. She looked pale, had chapped lips and looked horrible in general.
“I know what you’re thinking. I do look horrible.” She said in a low, joking manner.
“Shush you, Mom. Leave it to you to make a joke out of this.”
“If I don’t, who will. You all seem terribly grim. I mean I survived.” I could tell she wanted to cross her arms but the IV tubes made it practically impossible. I gave her a dirty look, the kind parents give to their children when they‘ve done something wrong.
“Don’t look at me like that! That look is solely reserved for you and Blake whenever you two get trouble. I’m surprised, it’s been a week at your new school and I haven’t gotten any phone calls.” I internally sighed, so they decided to let me off the hook for detention. Mom nudged me and raised an eyebrow,
“I know that look, you got into trouble, didn’t you? Apparently it wasn’t with your brother, otherwise I would have gotten a call. What did you do?”
“My Math teacher sucks. One of my new friends, Henry, was trying to help me understand the lesson and then that old bastard just came to my table and yelled at us for talking. Henry and I couldn’t help it but we started laughing right in his face and I’m sure that didn’t help our case one bit. Moving on though, who was that shady looking guy outside? Said his name was Wesley Smith.” Mom stiffened at his name and then flinched. I knew I had hit a nerve and she would have yelled at me but she was too weak so she just glared angrily at the wall before clearing her throat and gave me a look so cold, I almost shivered.
“It’s about time you knew.” She sighed and began to tell me.
Wesley Smith was his name but back in her younger days he was Mr. Smith to her in class and after school he was her best friend, Wes. They first met when Mom entered high school and was a bit of a loner. He was her really attractive and young English teacher and was fresh out of college too. He was 24, 9 years older than Mom but she went for older guys back then and 9 years wasn’t much compared to Johnny Depp and his fiancée who had a 23-year gap. Yikes.
The lady with him was Cassandra Nolan, Mom’s best friend before Aunt Qis. Aunt Qis hated her, which explains the slap. Cassandra was Mom’s best friend before she betrayed her because she got together with Wes even though she knew Mom had fancied him. The worst bit was that she had caught them making out in her parent’s room during her 18th birthday. She yelled at them for a good half hour and kicked them out of the party. She ignored all their calls for the next two weeks and when graduation rolled around two weeks later, she decided to forgive them because she realized people couldn’t help whom they fell in love with and she didn’t want to part on bad terms with them. I admired the fact that even after that brutal betrayal, she had the love to forgive them. I know for a fact if I was in her position, either Cassandra or Wes would have been brutally murdered and I would have made sure of it.
Over the weeks away from her friends, Mom had gotten closer to Aunt Qis and soon enough they had become best friends. It was funny to hear that they hated each other before, since they are inseparable now. They even attended graduation prom together, this marked the day they officially realized that they were going to be best friends for life. Look at them now, beautiful friendship for 27 long years. So the weeks flew by and it was graduating day. Aunt Qis and Mom wore matching dresses in different colours and were so excited for prom as they had landed amazing dates. Mom had planned on asking Wes to escort her but seeing how things went, she was dateless until Dad had finally gotten the courage to introduce himself to her and ask her out. Aunt Qis, however, had landed Dad’s equally attractive best friend, Blake, hence my brother’s name. Dad’s best friend Blake was just one of those people you’re friends with in high school and then you never see him again. That’s why I have never met this ‘Uncle’ Blake of mine. Thinking about it now, it’s weird that all my siblings were named after actual people my parents knew and I was named after a stupid cartoon character.
“Mom, why was I named after a stupid cartoon whilst Blake, Q and Dyl were all named after proper people?” I blurted out, interrupting her. She looked annoyed and it was not because I interrupted.
“Vanellope Tequila Carson!” I winced at my full name because for one, Mom always called me ‘kiddo’ and if she called me anything else it meant she was really mad at me, and two, I had an awful middle name.
Yeah sure my siblings had awful middle names as well but still, hearing it out loud made it worse. All the Carson kids had different types of alcohol as their middle names; I was Vanellope Tequila Carson, then Blake Vodka Carson, Qistina Macallan Carson and Dylan Rum Carson. At least Q and Dyl’s middle names sounded relatively normal and then there’s Blake and I. Honestly, I blame Dad because he’s responsible for giving us middle names. Mom and Dad had a deal before we were born; Mom picked first names and Dad picked middle names. For some reason, Dad thought it would be an awesome joke to name us after alcohol and decided to put it on the birth certificate to get a scare out of Mom but then a nurse took the certificates away before he showed it to Mom. He definitely got a scare…and it wasn’t from Mom but because of Mom when she found out. Eventually though, we all decided to embrace the weird Carson middle names.
“Vanellope Von Schweets was a brilliant cartoon character and stupid as you oh-so kindly put it. She was headstrong and badass. Just exactly how I wanted you to turn out and you did turn out just like that, or even better if I do say so myself. So you better feel proud that you were the only one named after a fictional character. If it was up to me, I would have named all of you after fictional characters but your father…” she sighed, shaking her head.
“And yet you let him name us after alcohol.” I clicked my tongue at her disapprovingly. She stuck her tongue out at me,
“Oh please, being named after Tequila is the best thing that’s ever happened to you, kiddo. Besides I’m pretty sure that weird middle names are practically Carson tradition, I mean just look at mine.” I roll my eyes at her.
“Mom, Ellexis isn’t that much of a weird middle name, its just uniquely spelt. There’s a difference. Anyways, can you please get back to the story?”
“Of course, where did I stop? Right, Blake had taken Qis out for prom…”
According to Mom, it was the best prom ever.
That was typically Mom; everything was the best for her. ‘OMG SuperWhoLock [Supernatural, Doctor Who & Sherlock; old people shows.] are the best shows ever!’ ‘OMG that was the best birthday ever!’ You get my drift.
It was probably some washed up party with Aunt Qis, Mom and Dad wearing fancy clothes and some ‘80s and punk rock music playing in the background since Mom loved wearing fancy clothes and listening to ‘80s music and punk rock when she was younger. Oh who am I kidding, Mom still wears fancy clothes at any chance she gets and listens to ‘80s and punk rock music all the time. There was actually a time I caught her belting out to Fall Out Boy and it wasn’t a pretty sight.
I’m also pretty sure it was the only prom Mom had ever attended. As she was saying, it was the best prom ever and she was going to forgive Wes and Cassandra that very night when the police came to her school and crashed the prom. Why? It was all Cassandra and Wes’ fault. Apparently they had hitchhiked or eloped or whatever. Basically they ran off somewhere to be together and to get away from Mom, clearly. Which explains the policemen crashing prom for Mom. They took Mom, Aunt Qis, Dad and a couple of their other classmates in for questioning. Mom was so mad at everyone that she swore at the policemen, which landed her ass in jail overnight. Then Dad and Aunt Qis bailed her out using all their savings because they didn’t want to get any of their parents involved. That was when Mom knew she was going to marry Dad one day. She says and I quote, “When you find a a boy willing to bail out of jail on the first date, you marry that boy. Especially if he makes you laugh. Now that’s a keeper.”
It was a nice quote, I’ll admit that but it doesn’t mean I’ll follow her advice. The guy I marry needs to at least hit some expectations of mine. I’m not as easily pleased as my mother is and also this is if any guy even looks my way (my brothers and Mr. Nolan do not count at all).
So Dad bailed Mom out of jail and sent her home. Soon after they started dating. Typical. This feels like it just came right out of a movie; a cool movie though because it’s not everyday your future husband bails you out of jail on the first date. Aunt Qis approved of Dad because of the bailing thing, that’s why I always see Aunt Qis and Dad always goofing around together and just being great friends, it’s good to know the backstory behind that. So basically everything was dainty and fine until Aunt Qis received an invite in her mail.
Guess who? Wes and Cassandra’s wedding in Australia. They left America to go to Down Under. How freaking rich. I hope Cassandra’s face burnt off but from what I had seen earlier, that clearly wasn’t the case. Of course Mom was outraged, how dare they sent Aunt Qis an invite and not her. Even though they were avoiding her (they literally moved to another country), it would have been nice to get an invite of sorts. Then Aunt Qis found the small note from Wes, apologizing to Mom. Of course Mom crumpled it and threw away. Till this day, it doesn’t know what it said until Wes visited her earlier.
“What did it say, Mom?”
Before she could answer, Dad came in and cut story time in short.
“Hey Elle, it’s time to go home. Let Mom rest and we’ll visit her tomorrow.” He said in a manner that would have suited better for a 5 year old.
“Alright Dad, but you don’t have to talk to me like I’m five.” I told him, feeling annoyed that he cut ‘story time’ short and I couldn’t hear more about Mom’s teen adventures. This little story time we had, inspired me to start on another novel. My problem with writing novels was the complete opposite of mom’s problem. She couldn’t finish a novel to save her life when she was my age. In my case, I could finish novels but my content was absolute shit and it was all over the place. Basically I couldn’t plot well or keep to a plot twist limit while new novel ideas distract my mother. Eventually she got her problem under control and look at her now, I could only hope the same for me.
On the way back home, I reflected on what Mom had shared. I reviewed and compared my life right now with hers back then. Sounded similar. Attractive, young teacher who is a potentially friend, gorgeous friend who could backstab me any moment (I wouldn’t exactly consider Bianca my best friend; I’ve only known her for a week.), a nice friend I can count on (Aunt Qis for me, I’d like to think Henry in my case)…that just leaves my future husband bailing me out of jail, which is never going to happen so that part of the story doesn’t go for me.
As I fell asleep that night, I dreamt about being in the medieval times and everyone I knew was in it. The main event of it though really peaked my interest. Henry and Mr. Nolan fighting in a duel to win my heart. I don’t know whether to be flattered or freaked out that my brain conjured this scenario up.