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rainbowfic2025-08-28 11:24 pm
bookblather) wrote in rainbowfic2025-08-28 11:24 pm
Sapphire 2: Made It This Far
Author: Kat
Title: Made It This Far
Story: Shine Like It Does
Colors: Sapphire 2 (emerald) with this_blue_spirit's paint by numbers (Charlotte - journeys and quests)
Supplies and Materials: Graffiti (Lilith Faire day 5 Made It This Far, Katelyn Tarver), miniature collection, novelty beads ("I'm not sure this place is insured for flying."), acrylics (Write three paragraphs on the same subject for yourself (or your character), one from the perspective of them as a child, one as an adult, and one as an old person. See where it takes you.), life drawing
Word Count: 600
Rating: PG-13 for a couple of swear words.
Summary: Charlotte and her journeys.
Warning: none
Notes: none
Charlotte was too young to remember her first trip- a three-week-old baby taken home to Mexico to meet the family. But she made that journey so many times she thought she knew what it must have been like. The long drive down to the border, the ceremonial production of passports and papers, the long drive to Abuelita's, tios and primos and Abuelita running out of the house with open arms-- she always thought it was strange how little changed when you changed countries, and yet how much.
She never wanted to go home to the States. She always had to.
--
Her parents didn't take the family to many places when she was a child. Canada once, a few different places in the US, always within driving distance. She didn't take her first plane until she was fifteen. Just another thing that made her weird at school.
She didn't like planes. She didn't like the sudden swoop and leap of takeoff and landing, or the endless drone of the engines, or the tiny excuses for seats- and her family flew first class! It was worth it to go to Spain, but she thought she'd be happiest if she never flew again.
--
In Spain, her parents bought her a pair of emerald earrings. For good fortune, her mother said; to make you smile, her father said. They hung halfway down her neck, shimmering stones set in gold, bound together with lacy golden vines. Charlotte loved them immediately.
Miranda said they made her look like a queen. They made her feel like one too. She held her chin higher to display them. She stood taller when they dangled from her earlobes. She wore them to her quincenera and prom and graduation.
She wore them on the plane to New York. For good fortune.
--
New York did not bring her good fortune. She was less hopeful on the flight to Atlanta.
At least, she thought as she stared out the window, at least it wasn't her skin that doomed her this time. It was her naivete and her willingness to trust people she shouldn't. Jack wasn't naive. Miranda didn't trust people. She should be more like her siblings.
Charlotte sighed, and leaned her head against the wall of the plane. She would never be more like her siblings.
They kept telling her she was wonderful as she was. She wasn't sure that was true.
--
The journey back to LA was the worst of her life.
Miranda was hurt, badly, her indestructible big sister close to death. Papa, white and still in the seat across from her- how must he and Mama and Jack be feeling? And yet, what kept her hand over her mouth, slow tears leaking from her eyes, was the memory of Daniel's face.
What the fuck was wrong with her? Why was she grieving an almost not-even relationship when her sister might be dead by the time they landed? How could she be so selfish?
She just couldn't stop the tears.
--
Charlotte took the train home to Atlanta. She really hated flying, and she needed the time to think.
Miranda would live- that was one worry eased. Her family- parents, tios, primos- they were still whole. And she...
Losing Daniel, his friendship and other possibilities, that would hurt. But if she lost him, well, he was not her whole life in Atlanta. She had a beloved job, dear friends, a community. She could still claim what she'd built.
Three days and two trains passed with the country scrolling by outside her window and her emerald earrings swaying gently against her chin.
Title: Made It This Far
Story: Shine Like It Does
Colors: Sapphire 2 (emerald) with this_blue_spirit's paint by numbers (Charlotte - journeys and quests)
Supplies and Materials: Graffiti (Lilith Faire day 5 Made It This Far, Katelyn Tarver), miniature collection, novelty beads ("I'm not sure this place is insured for flying."), acrylics (Write three paragraphs on the same subject for yourself (or your character), one from the perspective of them as a child, one as an adult, and one as an old person. See where it takes you.), life drawing
Word Count: 600
Rating: PG-13 for a couple of swear words.
Summary: Charlotte and her journeys.
Warning: none
Notes: none
Charlotte was too young to remember her first trip- a three-week-old baby taken home to Mexico to meet the family. But she made that journey so many times she thought she knew what it must have been like. The long drive down to the border, the ceremonial production of passports and papers, the long drive to Abuelita's, tios and primos and Abuelita running out of the house with open arms-- she always thought it was strange how little changed when you changed countries, and yet how much.
She never wanted to go home to the States. She always had to.
--
Her parents didn't take the family to many places when she was a child. Canada once, a few different places in the US, always within driving distance. She didn't take her first plane until she was fifteen. Just another thing that made her weird at school.
She didn't like planes. She didn't like the sudden swoop and leap of takeoff and landing, or the endless drone of the engines, or the tiny excuses for seats- and her family flew first class! It was worth it to go to Spain, but she thought she'd be happiest if she never flew again.
--
In Spain, her parents bought her a pair of emerald earrings. For good fortune, her mother said; to make you smile, her father said. They hung halfway down her neck, shimmering stones set in gold, bound together with lacy golden vines. Charlotte loved them immediately.
Miranda said they made her look like a queen. They made her feel like one too. She held her chin higher to display them. She stood taller when they dangled from her earlobes. She wore them to her quincenera and prom and graduation.
She wore them on the plane to New York. For good fortune.
--
New York did not bring her good fortune. She was less hopeful on the flight to Atlanta.
At least, she thought as she stared out the window, at least it wasn't her skin that doomed her this time. It was her naivete and her willingness to trust people she shouldn't. Jack wasn't naive. Miranda didn't trust people. She should be more like her siblings.
Charlotte sighed, and leaned her head against the wall of the plane. She would never be more like her siblings.
They kept telling her she was wonderful as she was. She wasn't sure that was true.
--
The journey back to LA was the worst of her life.
Miranda was hurt, badly, her indestructible big sister close to death. Papa, white and still in the seat across from her- how must he and Mama and Jack be feeling? And yet, what kept her hand over her mouth, slow tears leaking from her eyes, was the memory of Daniel's face.
What the fuck was wrong with her? Why was she grieving an almost not-even relationship when her sister might be dead by the time they landed? How could she be so selfish?
She just couldn't stop the tears.
--
Charlotte took the train home to Atlanta. She really hated flying, and she needed the time to think.
Miranda would live- that was one worry eased. Her family- parents, tios, primos- they were still whole. And she...
Losing Daniel, his friendship and other possibilities, that would hurt. But if she lost him, well, he was not her whole life in Atlanta. She had a beloved job, dear friends, a community. She could still claim what she'd built.
Three days and two trains passed with the country scrolling by outside her window and her emerald earrings swaying gently against her chin.
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1) I Got Rhythm, Ella Fitzgerald: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rohM2d7CAI
2) all-knowing