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 Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 11:34 am
Jett had not seen his girlfriend since the whole meteor incident. He had heard from her—many times, through phone calls and text messages that came few and far between. He was partially pleased and partially torn with this turn of things. The sweet, caring, loving boyfriend in him (What? It was there) wanted to be at her side, though the self preserving narcissist in him (that one was obvious) wanted to avoid her at all costs.
Raven, he had learned, was sick. And not just sniffles and the occasional cough, like him, but full blown sick. In keeping his distance, he knew he was safe from her deadly germs, though admittedly felt a bit like he was just letting her down and abandoning her to suffer, alone.
It had taken a fair share of reluctant self motivation to conceive something nice for the girl, despite being convinced that in doing so, he would die. Clearly there was only one thing that could be done.
Jett had picked up the phone and called Millicent—invited her over for an impromptu arts and crafts session, selected a rendezvous time, and then went out to the store to pick up supplies. He had just barely returned and dropped off the bags full when the doorbell rang and, assuming it was Millicent and not some door-to-door salesman, he hastily moved to open it, ushering the girl inside. “Everything’s in the living room,” he explained, dismissing a proper greeting in favor of getting to the point “If you want a snack, you know where the kitchen is.”
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Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 7:33 pm
Millie hurried inside, her nose still a bright pink color. She was rather glad that she hadn’t ended up like Raven had, but…was still glad that SHE got to make things for her with Jett, and Raven didn’t get to spend any extra time with the older boy. He was her brother now, after all. Raven was just…a girlfriend.
Feelings of jealousy didn’t stop the girl from bringing a large bottle of glitter though. No, even Raven deserved a card covered in glitter. Glitter made the world a better place, full of color, shine and sparkles. You just couldn’t go wrong with glitter, and she was quite sure that Jett wouldn’t have thought to get glitter for his poor, sick, lonely girlfriend.
“All right, Jett. I brought the most important thing, I brought the glitter for the card. Raven won’t be able to resist getting all better when she looks at the cards we’re going to make her, you know that right?”
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Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 8:01 pm
Jett eyed the bottle of glitter warily; he had purposefully avoided the tiny reflective shards of plastic given their notorious ability to spill—that and the fact that he didn’t exactly know how apply glitter given that nobody had taught him as a small child. Glitter was for girls, after all, and the last time Jett had been in art class and had been involved with glitter, a girl had sneezed a pile of it right into his face.
He had never forgiven her, naturally.
“No,” he replied slowly. “I did not know that. But seeing that you have been so considerate as to bring such a copious amount, I imagine that means she’ll be getting better very quickly.” He assumed that the cards would be a nice gesture to show that they wanted her to get well—and a decent enough substitute for going to visit her too much.
When Millie made no effort to go to the kitchen, he assumed it was just a smart idea for him to lead her to the table in the living room where he’d set up the rest of the supplies. Jett really had no idea what type of card he wanted to make Raven, though this had seemed like such a good idea when he was out buying things.
A box of tissues and a waste basket half filled with used tissues was sign enough that Jett was fighting his own sickness, though he was still willing to put himself at risk for Raven and do as dorky a thing as sit down and make her get well cards. “So,” he glanced to Millie after he plopped down at the table, looking over all the supplies. “I take it you’ve got some experience with this? The last time I made a card it was out of macaroni and for my mom.”
It was, mostly to Jett’s embarrassment, tacked up on the fridge—where it had been for well over a decade.
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Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 10:19 pm
Millicent laughed and sat down at the little impromptu arts and crafts table, looking at everything. At once, she grabbed a sheet of construction paper and folded it in half. “Don’t worry, Jett. I’m still in elementary school, after all. I do still have art class. We make cards for a lot of things. Like Mothers day and stuff.”
She grabbed a bottle of glue and started writing Raven’s name on the top of the card, tongue hanging out of her mouth as she concentrated. By the time she finished writing it, it looked more like “Rqvon”, but…it was the thought that counted. It was always the thought that counted with things like this. Always. She took her glitter, then looked up at Jett for half a moment, before dumping a mound of it on the card, making sure it completely coated the glue, then getting another piece of construction paper and shook the glitter off, smiling as the words were coated in the sparkly stuff.
“It’s that easy, Jett! I’m sure you can do it. And, just think. When you give Raven the cards, she’ll like you even more than she already does!”
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Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 10:45 pm
Jett looked at Millicent and followed here lead, selecting a light colored sheet of construction paper. He took more time to fold his in half, wanting a crease perfectly down the middle. The light purple color was girly enough that he assumed she’d liked it, and yet not obnoxious enough that she would take offense to his selection. His tongue stayed in his mouth, though he couldn’t help but snicker at Millicent as she worked diligently.
Until she had poured that heap of glitter. He did not seem to understand the concept of the mess she had just poured onto her card until he she shook it off onto another sheet of paper. All that was left was a slightly illegible, yet pretty lettering of the girl’s name. “All right,” he replied, wondering why he didn’t just get her a store bought card and save himself all the hassle.
An hour ago this seemed like a cute idea, now it was just way too much work.
Within folding the card in half, he hit his first rough spot.
He had no idea what he wanted to say to the girl. Or how he wanted to decorate it.
“…So. What the hell do you put on a get-well card?” he asked, seeming a bit stumped.
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Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 11:02 pm
Millie seemed to ignore him for a long, long moment, holding Raven’s card flat on the table, beginning to draw a pig holding a flower on the front of it, taking great care to make it look perfect. Finally she looked up, shaking her head.
“Jett…are you being serious, or just joking around? It’s a get-well card…you should put nice things, like flowers, and pigs and puppies, and make sure she knows you want her to get well. Write a nice little message on the inside…just make it perfect so she knows you care about her and want her to feel better.”
Honestly, you’d think Jett had never really cared for anyone before. Asking what to put on a card. It was so simple what to put…he just had to put it there and be done with it. Duh. Good cards came from the heart, not the mind…and it seemed like it was up to Millie to show him where the heart really was. “Hey, Jett. Close your eyes. I’ll make everything better for you. You’ll understand EVERYTHING, so just close your eyes.”
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Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 11:19 pm
Jett’s lips pursed a bit at Millicent’s instructions; he was not an eleven year old girl and therefore had very little experience in making cards. He had not chosen to be a creative romantic with his last girlfriend, and sans his mother, there had been very few people worth making cards for.
His eyes drifted from the blank card up to the girl in front of him and then he let out a slight sigh, looking back down at the paper before he closed his eyes, tapping his finger expectantly on the table. He didn’t know what Millicent was up to, but with the rut he was currently in, he suspected just about anything would be good help to get him started on this card.
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Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 11:24 pm
Millicent grinned when the male obeyed, then slowly and quietly picked up the paper full of glitter, and poured it into her hand. She stood up, then walked up behind Jett, sprinkling the fistful of glitter over top of him. “Magic Sparkle Dust! Give Jett lots and lots of creativity!”
At the very least, he would know that glitter fixed everything. From sickness, to depression…to just plain art block. “See, Jett. Glitter is the key to life. And now you sparkle, so you must have life now. Aren’t you super happy about that?” The child giggled, kind of liking how the glitter got stuck in Jett’s hair, and wondering just how long it would take to get all of the small bits of sparkly plastic out of his hair.
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Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 11:30 pm
…He should have known. Trusting Millicent to anything with his eyes closes. It was a mistake. A foolish, terrible mistake. Was he super happy about it? No, he probably looked like some ******** fairy. How was he expected to go outside if he glittered? His eyes opened and his lips pursed. It was like someone had poured cold water over him and he seemed, again, just stumped.
“Millie—” he protested, though it was already far too late to do anything. His tone turned to a chastising one. “You little—menace!” Perhaps if he was a little girl he could excuse glitter in his hair, but the fact of the matter was that glitter belonged on paper—and that was it. It didn’t want to think about how much had spilled on the floor, and how long it was going to take to clean it off of him.
He leaned forward, thinking that if he ruffled his hair quickly enough it wouldn’t get stuck. Head hovering over the table he tried to brush out the glitter before it got too attached, never even considering that while he was getting off a vast majority, he was also rubbing in a fair share of it. “I had life before,” he protested, wondering if this was excuse enough to murder Millicent. It seemed like no matter how hard he shook his head or ran his fingers through his hair, more just kept coming out.
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Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 11:43 pm
Millie gave a squeal and ran back to her spot at the table, switching between giggling and coughing every few seconds. “Don’t you feel more alive now though, Jett? You should throw glitter on Raven…that would make her feel better soon, I bet. I bet she would love you forever if you threw glitter on her.”
Millie did love to get glitter thrown on her…sometimes, at the very least. It was fun, and something different. Something to look forward to…on really special occasions. Glitter always just added that extra…pop to things.
“I bet Han Solo would wear glitter, if Leia asked him to…or just put it on him in his sleep. Don’t you want to be like Han Solo?”
Now, that was a completely pointless statement, but maybe it was one that would let Jett forget he was angry at her. The child went back to coloring in the pig on her card, grinning. “Now make Raven’s card all pretty, Jett.”
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Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 12:00 am
Throw glitter on Raven? God, that sounded like a terrible idea. He wasn’t terminating the idea, given that he figured he could probably enjoy tormenting his girlfriend a slight bit, though glitter? That was just too evil. Though, he could probably get away with it since she was ill.
His mind was already drifting when Millie said something about Leia and Han Solo, though since he had missed her whole statement he just offered a slight grunt in response. A few extra seconds of thinking allowed an idea to pop into his head as he continued to try and shake off the glitter.
Jett reached for a hair tie and tied his hair in a slightly sloppy, stubby little pony tail to keep it out of his face while he worked.
For the front of the card, he wrote ‘Dear Raven,’ in his elaborate scrawl. He lined the letters very carefully, making it as clean and professional as possible. He sprinkled only the slightest bit of glitter on the lettering to accent it in certain places.
On the inside of the card, on the right half, was a picture of a hill with a scribbled tree in the background. A tombstone rested on the hill, and from it a pudgy, frowning ghost (with another very light touch of sprinkles) floated next to it. On the left side of the card was an arrow and a note: ‘Don’t do this.’
Jett signed it, ‘Love, Jett.’
Quite pleased with the finished project, he presented it to Millicent for her approval.
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Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 12:19 am
Millie looked at the card, seeming really happy with Jett’s writing, then when she got to the inside, she laughed, falling over and rolling around the floor, unable to stop the giggles. “Jett…Jett you’re so mean! I love it! She’ll love it! That’s perfect! Don’t let her die, I love that!”
When her laughter finally died down, she sat up and grinned at Jett. “I bet she thinks you’re the best boyfriend ever. You better give her these cards soon, you hear me? Like, today, or tomorrow. Or even…”
She finished the picture on her card, and wrote a nice little message on the inside, before handing it to Jett. “Go right now. Go right now and tell her you really hope she feels better. Just be super cool about it.” The child nodded, knowing that this was the best plan. “Hurry, padawan, before she really DOES die from being sick, or from missing you…or being sick of missing you. I’ll see you later, okay? I’m going to go home and take a nap so I don’t get even more sick…”
She walked to Jett, then hugged him tightly, before running back out the door, pausing for a moment before running back inside. She grabbed her glitter, then sprinted back outside, and finally, to her own, warm house.
Well, that had been an adventure.
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Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 12:48 am
Jett had hardly had time to wave goodbye to Millicent before she was out the door; she seemed far too hyperactive and, though he had appreciated her efforts, he breathed a sigh of relief when she was gone. One more he leaned over the table to try and scrape out some more glitter. He was surprised when even more came out, though realized that this was going to be messy no matter what. He immediately relocated himself to the bathroom and took a shower while he let the cards dry. When he got out he vacuumed the living room floor, cleaned up from the arts and crafts, washed his hands, checked for glitter, and then carefully collected the cards to deliver them to Raven.
He had intended to wait until the next day or later that evening, though Millicent’s prodding to hurry up inspired him to head over a little earlier. He texted Raven that he was going to be dropping by and, without waiting for a response from her, snagged the cards and relocated himself to his car.
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