#and nehn is a highschooler

[captusmomentum]

[ chucks this at @feynites​ ‘s window tied to a brick with ‘PAY FOR YOUR SINS’ written on it ]

Another hard day at the office was done for Samahllin and now the arduous process of getting through the pickup line and then to everyones after school stuff began. She sat in the passenger side captain’s chair feet on the back of Nehnara’s chair in a futile attempt to bother him, dicking around on her phone. She looked up and through the window at the swarm of evacuating refugees (children) looking for The Urchin.

 Inan running at break neck speeds to the minivan was not new, but the manic expression was….. Okay that was also not super new but this was a new one. This one kinda looked like she was a terrified clown trying to keep the charade going so the kids don’t panic.

She snapped a pic.

When Inan made it to the car she slammed open the door with a terrifying strength that no child of that size should have and thrust a card out in front of her and into the minivan nearly clocking Sam in the jaw.

“I GOT INVITED TO A BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!!!!!!!!” She announces with unnecessary volume. She didn’t need that ear it’s cool.

Sam takes the damn thing from her hand and looks at the shitty handmade card as Inan gets in closes the door and wiggles her way between Sam and Thenvas’ chairs to the back row. Their mom turns and looks back at her smiling.

“That’s great sweetie! Who’s party is it?”

Inan replies as she squirms around, taking off her backpack and coat which take up the rest of the last row.

“Dirthamen Evanuris’s! He’s in my first period and 2 of my other classes.”

“The weird Omen kid yeah.” Sam remarks duly as she looks over his card.

It reeks of inept nerd and the amount of text is completely embarrassing, it’s a birthday not a wedding for nug’s sake relax kid. The bear in the hat is pretty cool though. Silently she hands the card over to her twin giving him a look. The Dirthamen kid himself seems pretty harmless, classic nerd and all that, but his brother is a little sociopath. It’s great and all that Inan got invited to something but is it ethical to send her if a baby ax murderer is there?

Thenvas meets her gaze, they on the same page there and he takes it from her. He looks over it as he remarks coolly.

“Isn’t his brother the one that got shipped off to a boarding school because he was causing too much trouble?”

Samahllin grins. “Yeah Falon’Din. The prick.”

Their mom, who’d been in the middle of pulling out looks at Sam through the rearview mirror.

“Samahllin! Language”

She just grins and waggles her eyebrows at her before unbuckling her seatbelt so she can sit sideways with her legs in the isle, better to talk to Then and the Twerp.

“D’ya know if he’s gonna be there?”

Inan looks uncertain and a little worried. “No. But he didn’t mention him at all and the card doesn’t anything about him. If he was gonna be there they’d at least say something like ‘bring 2 presents’ right?”

“Hm. Good Point. I know I make a pointa it on our invites n’ stuff, guess it’s just Dirthadude then.”

They’re on their way now, almost free of the black hole of the school zone at pick up time.

“Well I think it’s great you got invited. Is Dirthamen your friend? You’ve never really mentioned him before.”

Inan looks down, biting her lip and picks at the hem of her sweater, she’s done that so much she’s frayed the bottom of the dumb thing. Sam worries about her, you gotta be a lot of nervous to do that kinda damage to knitwear. Maybe their school’s not the right fit for her, She knows that her only friends are them— she doesn’t have like, any non-sibling friends in her class or whatever.

“No. He’s not my friend, he doesn’t really have any I think. But he made a really good temple complex replica for social studies once! It was really cool, he even used that model maker moss stuff and little trees and stuff! I showed it to you at that Parent’s Night thing remember?”

“ Oh yeah! That was Dirthamen’s huh? He sure is a talented little builder!”

Thenvas passes the card up to Nehnara who smiles upon seeing the cover.

“Hey, cool bear! Looks like he’s a good drawer too.”

Her twin copies her move and turns to face the center of the minivan, but leaves his seatbelt on. Coward.

“Any idea who else is going?” he asks.

Inan shakes her head. “Nope but I figure it probably won’t be a lot of people. Probably just his sisters and kids like me or nice ones.”

Then does that humming thing in the back of the throat that makes him sound like a history teacher. So they had no idea who else was invited and no idea of any of them would show up unless they were too nice or too desperate for friends to say no. Sam mentally shot that idea to death. She wasn’t gonna get all bitchy about this and ruin it for Inan, besides if there was something actually wrong with this Dirthanerd she’d know about it already. The other one was the problem and he wasn’t gonna be there. The worst that was probably gonna happen was like, normal party problems, like it sucking or someone puking.

She hisses. “Andruil… My Arch Nemesis…..”

Then gives her a bored look but still raises his eyebrows in mock surprise.

“Oh? She is? I thought it was Toni Hawke this week, what did Andruil do?”

She glares out the window behind him. “Cut me in line on Taco Tuesday, the little twerp.”

“The Horror.” He says flatly, not looking up from his phone. “What a monster.”

Inan giggles behind them and Sam sticks her tongue out at both of her ignorant siblings. They’ll never understand the intricacies of school lunchroom politics. Fools.

Nehn shows the card to their mom at the next red light.

“Oh how cute! What a nice card! He really did put a lot of time into this didn’t he, it’s very good.”

“I know right? Kid’s got skills.”

“It’s at the Zoo? Oh Inanallas, that’ll be so fun!”

“Yeah that’s like, the best part! Real deal maker!”

“I’d feel a little better if I knew who else is going, I’d hate to leave you there all alone…”

Crap! Nice going mom you IDIOT!!!!! Why would you point it out like that????? Sam thinks.  Now she’s gonna get all weird about it.

“The invite says you can bring a plus one, I’ll go with her and make sure none of the lions eat her.” Nehn offers, smiling.

“What do you say Innie? Don’t mind your big brother tagging along?”

“Nope!” she chirps in a way the rest of the kids can very clearly tell is forced.

Mom smiles back at her in the rearview mirror with that Mom Look she got when she was superimposing baby them on not-baby them.

“Well sweetheart I think it’s wonderful, it’ll be a great chance to make friends.”

Nehnara passes the card back to Thenvas who then passes it back to Inanallas who looks down at it intensely, expression mixed.

Mom finally notices that she and Then are sitting in their seats wrong yells at them to sit in them properly and they all get back to business as usual, with Inan in the back becoming an increasing black cloud of anxiety, fear and doubt. Which was, frustratingly, also business as usual.

It’s after dinner when everyone’s off doing their own things that lil Innie comes up to him while he’s doing the dishes looking like she’s on the brink of tears. Hoooooo boy. Here we go.

“Hey Inzo what’s up?”

He keeps it light— enough she doesn’t choke, but not enough she’ll think he didn’t notice how upset she is. It’s hard but there’s a balance that you need to get her to talk when she’s like this, otherwise she clams up. It’s like the two of you have to trick the problem into thinking it’s a homework question and not cry for help. He’s probably the only one who’s managed it so far, Then and Sam are just bulls in a china shop and Mom and Dad are well, Mom and Dad.

“I don’t think I should go to the party…”

“Aw c’mon, I think you totally should. It’ll be fun!”

“But Mom’s right! It’ll be a bunch of strangers and I’ll be all alone and they’ll all think I’m weird like everyone else at school does! Dirthamen and them don’t even talk to me! They hate me!”

“They don’t hate you. They just don’t know you. It sounds like Dirthamen’s a pretty shy kid and he invited other kids he thought were shy and stuff like him. Best chance for him to make some friends now that he’s not getting bullied every day by his brother don’t you think? He must want to be your friend if he invited you, it’d be kind of a waste of his time if he didn’t you know?”

He puts down the pot in his hands and moves on to the next one. She rocks a little on her feet, her hands balled up that her chest and anxiously fiddling with their sleeve cocoons.

“But what if I get there and he talks to me and hates me and all the other kids hate me too! Or the parents don’t or they’re mean! What if the party is really bad or scary! What if I have a panic attack or something!”

“That’s why I’m gonna go with you. If things are going good then I just hang back and eat all the snacks while you party hardy. If things look bleak then you give me the high sign and we blow that popsicle stand and goof off in the Zoo for a while or if you’re really upset we go right home and watch movies and eat ice cream. Can’t lose.”

“Promise?”

“Double Super Promise. The second it looks like it’s gonna suck we’ll bust out.”

Looks like the promise of immediate assured escape has saved the day again as usual. She relaxes a bit and puts her arms on the counter then her head on them. A groan emerges from her arm cave.

“I don’t even know what to get him…”

“You said he built a cool thing for school right? Well what about a book or something on it? Or—hey yeah! What about a model kit? Those are super cool. If he likes making stuff he’ll love that!”

“You think?”

“Totally.”

“What if he doesn’t like it?”

Nehn shrugs as he puts the last pot down to dry and cleans up after himself. “Blame me.”

“Seriously?”

He grins and waggles his eyebrows.  “What are siblings for if not blaming?”

She laughs a little and stands up straight again. He with all the speed and strength of an oldest brother he picks up all 4-something of her and flips her upside down in his grip with practiced ease. She squawks and flails wildly, which is broken up by her laughter and demands to be put down as he carries her to the living room.

“Enough dumb stuff Inzorino! Let’s watch some bad tv!”