i am sixteen going on seventeen
Claire can't quite remember when birthday parties got to be a pain. It's probably, she thinks, balled up with all of the other stuff that started losing its luster once she made it into high school, once Jackie told her clearly that high school was Claire's chance to make something out of herself rather than just sit idly by and daydreaming, filling the margins of her notebooks in with pictures of mermaids and of Rapunzel making one long, roundabout slide of her tall tower. That's when everything got tangled up with climbing the social ladder, when her party invite list was carefully combed through and pruned for any people too far down in the hierarchy, when every cheerleader was handed an invite no matter how bitchy or superficial, because they'd earned that right. In retrospect, it's so much easier to see how ridiculous that notion is, that anyone has a right to attend a party celebrating someone's life; Claire's only sorry that the revelation's come late enough that the very thought of hosting a party makes her cringe with distaste.
All things considered (like the fact that she's on a magical island without return in sight), things aren't too bad. She doesn't even need to hesitate before deciding what it is she wants this year, which is just an uneventful day spent with family, walking along the beaches and under the sun that she's sorely missed this past month. She sits on the beach now, her little cousin generally bouncing about on her lap and Eden lounging not far away- in spite of the fact that Claire assured Dr. Chase that she's got a lot of babysitting experience under her belt, he still looked a lot more relieved when she mentioned the fact that Eden would be there- and right now, things are okay. Life is good. Pressing her lips to Nate's soft little cheek yields a lot less resistance now than it did the first few times, and Claire balances him carefully while she draws the outline of a birthday cake into the sand, sweeping over it with fancy patterns like she'd always wanted in a cake, the letters of her name crawled over the side.
Just as she's about to start drawing in the candles, she pauses, looking over at Nate.
"Can you guess how old I am?" Claire asks, hair falling over her shoulder in curls carefully attended to, one of the few remaining vanities from Odessa.
Nate's brow furrows deeply, concentration evident in the thin press of his tiny lips. "Ummm..." he hesitates, before pulling away from Claire to stand a couple of steps away, hand rubbing his chin thoughtfully for emphasis- Claire laughs brightly in encouragement. At last, he nods.
"Fifty," he declares in an entirely serious tone.
Lips rounding with surprise, Claire's nose wrinkles as she squints in mock indignation. "Fifty? Do I really look like I've lived half a century?"
But far from sensing the disapproval in Claire's expression, Nate nods eagerly and spreads his arms out as far as they'll go, the tips of his fingers high above his head and the other hand struggling to make it past his knee. "Claire really, really tall. The number, the number," Nate shifts from one foot to the other, having abandoned the attempt to display just how big his cousin was. "Is big."
"Oh god," Claire exclaims with a playful cringe, reaching out to sweep Nate into her arms again and squeezing him tight, tickling his tummy. "I'm not sure you'll feel the same way after a few years."
[ Tag Claire or tag Claire and Eden both at once, just make sure to clarify which! ST/LT welcome, no tag limit for Claire in specific, and a decent time to meet her. Warning, though: My tags are likely to be slow until the weekend. ]
All things considered (like the fact that she's on a magical island without return in sight), things aren't too bad. She doesn't even need to hesitate before deciding what it is she wants this year, which is just an uneventful day spent with family, walking along the beaches and under the sun that she's sorely missed this past month. She sits on the beach now, her little cousin generally bouncing about on her lap and Eden lounging not far away- in spite of the fact that Claire assured Dr. Chase that she's got a lot of babysitting experience under her belt, he still looked a lot more relieved when she mentioned the fact that Eden would be there- and right now, things are okay. Life is good. Pressing her lips to Nate's soft little cheek yields a lot less resistance now than it did the first few times, and Claire balances him carefully while she draws the outline of a birthday cake into the sand, sweeping over it with fancy patterns like she'd always wanted in a cake, the letters of her name crawled over the side.
Just as she's about to start drawing in the candles, she pauses, looking over at Nate.
"Can you guess how old I am?" Claire asks, hair falling over her shoulder in curls carefully attended to, one of the few remaining vanities from Odessa.
Nate's brow furrows deeply, concentration evident in the thin press of his tiny lips. "Ummm..." he hesitates, before pulling away from Claire to stand a couple of steps away, hand rubbing his chin thoughtfully for emphasis- Claire laughs brightly in encouragement. At last, he nods.
"Fifty," he declares in an entirely serious tone.
Lips rounding with surprise, Claire's nose wrinkles as she squints in mock indignation. "Fifty? Do I really look like I've lived half a century?"
But far from sensing the disapproval in Claire's expression, Nate nods eagerly and spreads his arms out as far as they'll go, the tips of his fingers high above his head and the other hand struggling to make it past his knee. "Claire really, really tall. The number, the number," Nate shifts from one foot to the other, having abandoned the attempt to display just how big his cousin was. "Is big."
"Oh god," Claire exclaims with a playful cringe, reaching out to sweep Nate into her arms again and squeezing him tight, tickling his tummy. "I'm not sure you'll feel the same way after a few years."
[ Tag Claire or tag Claire and Eden both at once, just make sure to clarify which! ST/LT welcome, no tag limit for Claire in specific, and a decent time to meet her. Warning, though: My tags are likely to be slow until the weekend. ]