As I walked into my Uncle’s house I made sure to slip quietly into my room. It was too late in the day for me to be dealing with my Uncle’s mouth and I didn’t have the patience for listening to him complain about my hybrid existence. His usual habit, upon my return from work, will be to harass me for about an hour about how my mom was a skank and that I wouldn’t last very long due to my being a hybrid. Things were bad enough for purebred Undine, but within the culture, it was looked down upon to have a hybrid child-much less to actually be one. All of the explanations concerning why was lost to me at an early age, but I still like to think that not everyone within my family despises my guts. It’s just my Uncle who’s open about it.
Gathering my clothes in my suitcase, I hear the door close signifying my uncle’s return. He pokes his head into my room and sends a stream of water jets into my room, soaking all of my clothes and leaving me, for the most part, unharmed. ‘Aaand cue the harassment” I thought, rolling my eyes at his childish behavior. When Dad was here, he would usually send a bigger stream of jets at my uncle toppling him off balance. I contemplated doing the same but then got my usual headache signaling that it would be a bad idea. Choosing to ignore him-it was my last day with him after all- and not start another argument that would end with the both of us winded and gasping for water like retarded fish (No offense to the mermaids who have had that happen! They had a legitimate reason, no dissing on my end!) I strain the water from my clothes and absorb it into my body. Feeling the soothing relief of having more water in my system, I smirk at my uncle’s seething form and take a bow.
“Ever so grateful for the replenishing drink. I was simply dying for a little refreshment. Thank you, dear uncle.” Dodging another stream of jets, I shut the door...only to have him slip through the cracks and turn blue (yes, blue! The man is a riot!) in the face with fury.
“You little ingrate! Thank God that man is taking you off my hands tomorrow! I can’t stand another day of having to live with a little after-product of my brother’s fortifications.” Assuming that was an insult, and the fact that I was simply too-done with his attitude, I gave him a thumbs up and listened as he grumbled out of my room. Something about how ‘annoying youth was nowadays’ or it could also have doubled as an insult to how uncivilized hybrids are. After I could guarantee that my clothes were dry and there was no sign of my uncle, I pull out my headphones and listen to my playlist. Heading into the kitchen, I pull out my recipe book and add the new recipes from this afternoon. I jotted the ingredients and processes down, keeping an eye on the paper as I grab the ingredients for some gnocchi that I thought of in the moment. Setting aside a bowl for Uncle Matt (I’m not a monster, I still feed the man), I take a bite out of the gnocchi; eh, not bad, zucchini in the sauce was definitely a good choice.
Humming in satisfaction, I clean up my mess and start to work on my summer homework.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It’s about 2 o'clock when I realize that I fell asleep in the kitchen. How I woke up? That would be the ever-present grumbling and b****ing from Uncle Matt, as he finished eating his gnocchi, about how he needed to work overtime for his job and how Undine were never respected. Slipping into sneaky-time mode, I turn translucent and slosh into my room deciding I could work on my homework some other time. Cole would be here in about 4 hours to pick me up, so I decided to listen to music and head back to sleep.
~~~~~
“WHAT THE EVERLASTING FU*&*, YOU ^%$head! What was that for?!?!” I yelled at Cole’s hovering form as he laughed his head off. Swearing in about every profanity I knew I prompted to send jet streams at his face, only to barely get a trickle to move out.
“Ahh~ Crap.”
Hoisting me above his head, Cole ordered Sam to grab my things and walked out of the door to the car with me grumbling about his stupid arse dumping Kool-Aid in my hair. To recap, said adult thought that it was appropriate to wake me up by dumping Purple Kool-Aid in my hair as I slept. A disclaimer to those new to Undine anatomy: Sleep equals loss of control over the density; in other words, sleeping Undine are translucent and are basically a giant, sloshing, ever-moving form of water that- thanks to our brain- maintains our shape. The end result being that now my hair, and gradually the rest of my body, turned a deep purple that will take hours to filter out. Back to the present, I have my arms crossed and have been intentionally sending bits of purple on his shirt as payback. By the time we arrived at his house, I had woken up from my small nap and was utterly shocked at what I saw. Cole’s ‘house’ was pretty big. It looked more like one of those office buildings I would walk past on my way to school...in other words: it was definitely big and looked like a newspaper office and the Empire State building had a baby. People greeted us at the door and took my stuff to a room at who knows where. Giving me a tour of the building, Cole showed me where everything was in regards to bathrooms, living rooms (I had to do a double-take at that one due to how big it was) and during the entire tour, I noted the crazy amount of people walking in and out with papers and...sticks? Looking to Cole for an explanation, he chuckled. I took it as him laughing at my still purple appearance and proceeded to squirt him in the face with a bunch of purple from my hand. Well, this triggered a chain reaction.
First, all the heads in the building turned and then next thing I know, I have a bunch of those little sticks pointed at me and was pinned to the ground. One of Cole’s associates (or that’s what I assumed he was) glared at me and stated “How dare a familiar strike his master! Know your place!” Looking up at Cole for an explanation, and a bit of help since this was starting to hurt, he ordered the man off of me and helped me up. “Impudent little brat!”,scoffed the man as he walked off followed by the rest of the people in the building; some even muttering how ‘odd the new familiar’ was and inquiring as to ‘why it is purple?’ Groaning, I look at Cole in irritation. First, he turned me purple and now I have the entire building thinking I’m insane.
“Don’t mind them. Usually when I git a new recruit that isn't human, they assume that they’re a familiar. Ye’ should git used ta it pretty soon, but if any o’ em’ give ye’ any trouble let me know. I’ll set ‘em straight.”
“Okay,” I commented,” but why not mention that in the car? Would've been a better idea, no?” Cocking a purple eyebrow at him, I went to unpack with him at my heels.
“Don’t be too upset Spy, most of the mages here are older generations that are still adaptin’ to the whole equality to supernatural creatures idea. Back in their day, ye’ had to hunt most down and force ‘em to work with ye’. I was hoping I could bring you in as a repayment to your father, but...” he trailed off suddenly looking serious,” as a condition, you have to work as one of my staff. Part-time, of course! Ye’d still have yer other job, but you’ll be coming with us on most of our missions as well.”
Pausing him before he could go any further I held up a hand,”Uh, yeah that’s dandy and all, but when did I get a say in this? It’s not exactly legal for me to be working so many hours and, in case you’ve forgotten, I start up school in two months. How you gonna explain that to my teachers, huh?” Looking off in thought, he called Sam over and sad something in a different language-that explains why Sam doesn’t speak much!- and Big man walked off to fulfill whatever task was just thrust upon him.
“As for school, I spoke with your teachers and they will allow it, so long as you keep up with your studies. Also, I work fer the government, sooo…” Letting that little tidbit sink in, he continued,”Besides, everythin’ worked out with the agreement between your Uncle Matt and I. According ta the governmental documents, I can technically do whatever with ye until ye get older.” My jaw drops at that little monologue. My sh*^&*ty uncle practically sold me off to some stranger...that’s just jacked up. Friend of my father or not, my uncle couldn’t have…
“Now that that’s been taken care of… Welcome to the Incarnia Familia!”
He. Did. Not. Just...
I’m stuck with the mafia now...the heck!?!
Comments (0)
See all