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Post by Kira & Lee Norris on Jun 22, 2008 19:54:54 GMT
Lee stretched out on his back, his eyes searching the leafy canopy above. Through the gaps, the glimpses of a darkening sky cast little light into the enclosure below. Today, in contrast to yesterday's storm, it had been cool, and crisp. The wind hadn't been so harsh- it'd been more of a biting breeze, and the encroaching evening hadn't improved this in the slightest.
Today, Lee's lessons had slid by in a tired sort of fashion. Now that the holidays were fast approaching, everything seemed to be dragging out. The teachers didn't want to teach anymore, and the students didn't want to study. Even the most attentive Academic was having trouble keeping still during lessons.
He felt better now. He'd been tired all day, but during school hours, it'd been in a weary sort of way. Now, he was just relaxed.
And, for the first time in a while, oddly excited.
Madeleine was on her way.
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Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Jun 22, 2008 20:26:39 GMT
Hey, Russ' phone, and you know what to do - beep
"Hello, dearest cousin," Madeleine spat into her phone to Russ' answerphone. "I just got hijacked by a certain tall blonde Academic who seems to be rather upset with you right now. Aimee Morrison? Apparently the two of you kissed in the forest the other night, and you called her Kate the next morning. This is the third time, Russ. I swear to God, if you don't apologize to her - with her proper name - I'm sending you home, whether your mother likes it or not. I have better things to do than fix your wou-"
The answerphone beeped again, cutting her off. She slid her phone shut, fuming slightly.
Aimee was the third girl to come to her this month who had been made extremely mad by Russ. He seemed to be working his way pretty quickly through the girls at Orchid, though he'd seemed to have enough sense to pick the ones who would only want a no-strings-attached fling, and remember their names, but he'd gotten a little... slack, and had started to pick ones who weren't so easy going, and then forgetting their names. Aimee became Kate, Charlotte became Lauren, and Holly became Hannah - and when Russ had realised Holly's mis-naming, he'd shrugged and said, "Well, I was close."
And all of these girls had come complaining to Madeleine. Sometimes, a shared bloodline was a huge pain in the ass.
Still, she thought, as she slipped her cell phone into her pocket, she wouldn't let it spoil her mood. It had been a good day, with reasonably good weather - good enough for her to go for a decent walk without getting hypothermia, anyway. And now, she was going to meet Lee in their place, where they hadn't been for a while.
Life was good.
So it was just a shame about Russ' flings. He'd have to learn to deal with his own problems tonight.
A couple of minutes later (and a couple of minutes late, thanks to Aimee), she was stepping over the roots that marked their special place from the rest of the forest. Lee was lying stretched back on the ground, looking up at the leaf-hidden sky. Smiling softly, she walked over and sat down beside him, leaning over him and kissing him on the mouth. "Sorry I'm late."
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Post by Kira & Lee Norris on Jun 24, 2008 17:18:42 GMT
Lee's head lolled to the side as he heard her footsteps approaching, and he watched her come through the trees. He'd actually felt her footsteps a while ago; the vibrations from the earth had travelled across his spine, and he'd smiled to himself, counting the footsteps 'til she made it to him.
Turns out, it was 537.
When she saw him, she smiled, and the corners of her mouth creased as her whole face lit up. Lee smiled at her in welcome, then turned his eyes back towards the sky. He felt her sit down beside him, and then, closing his eyes and parting his lips, he knew what was coming.
As their mouths met, he pulled her down across his chest, his hands moving upwards, and coaxing a few curls across her cheek. She pulled back, smiling at him.
"Sorry I'm late."
"Late?" Lee pulled himself upwards. "What time is it, anyway?"
His hand slipped around her waist, moving her closer.
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Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Jun 24, 2008 17:42:52 GMT
"Five minutes later than when I said I'd be here, but if you didn't notice, I'll take it back and pretend I'm on time," she answered, smiling as Lee pulled her closer and automatically tucking the now loose curls back behind her ear. "I got called on to sort out Russ' girl problems for him. Healing bruised hearts, that kind of thing..."
It wouldn't happen again, anyway. Madeleine was not a Carer counsellor and Russ needed to learn to learn to sort his own problems now. He was a big boy, after all. Besides, it was almost the end of term, and he'd be going back to a camp at some stage soon, and the girls would forget about it.
Speaking of that, her grandmother had phoned her earlier about a "little visit", and some discussion now needed to be had...
"Have you been waiting long?" she asked, so she didn't have to go straight into the topic.
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Post by Kira & Lee Norris on Jun 24, 2008 18:09:18 GMT
"No idea," Lee answered honestly. He would be a really terrible time traveller. He'd turn up in 500 BC when he was aiming for 5 minutes before Chemistry, and it would take him decades to work his way back again.
Sighing, Lee tucked his other arm around Madeleine's waist, so now neither was free. His cheek pressed against the back of her head and he inhaled softly.
She smelled really good today. Not just her hair- it was her skin too. Lee found himself kissing a spot of perfumed skin on the back of her neck he rarely saw, because it was covered by hair. She looked good too. Her clothes really suited her today.
His own leather jacket felt a bit shabby in comparison.
"Doesn't matter now, anyway, does it?" he grinned.
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Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Jun 24, 2008 18:28:11 GMT
"Nope," she smiled, feeling the grin behind her, shivering delightedly as his lips touched her neck and another leather-clad arm slipped around her waist.
How she loved that jacket...
Anyway, her grandmother had called earlier, asking when she got out for the holidays, and if Lee was free, and if she could tear herself away from her duties as Head so that she could meet him. Madeleine knew perfectly well that when she had spoken about herself, the book club had also been included. The book club had to meet everyone and know everything.
And it didn't look as though she could save Lee the discomfort of it, either. Magda had mentioned that her parents were coming up to Lylis Glen again for it, and were talking about inviting some of their friends up...
So Madeleine didn't really have much of a choice. Especially when the guilt trips had started...
Leaning back against Lee slightly, she switched to a persuasive tone. "Hey, I have a question for you... is there any point this summer that you'd be free for a few days?"
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Post by Kira & Lee Norris on Jul 3, 2008 21:07:31 GMT
"Er..."
Possibly. Actually, probably. Actually... er... definitely.
"Yes," Lee nodded. "Um, yes. Just give me the times and I'll be there. I'll need to warn mum first of course, 'cause she'll be thinking she've got me for the whole time, but yes. Of course."
His mother wouldn't be pleased at all, really. She would complain that she saw him so rarely as it was, it would be such a shame that blah blah blah blah blah... He'd need a hell of an excuse to get out-
Hang on.
Why was she asking him if he was going to have any free time over the summer?
A quick search of the possibilities gave him no feasible answers.
So he opted to ask her why instead.
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Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Jul 10, 2008 14:09:01 GMT
"Well, I was wondering if you'd like to come up to camp for a few days, meet the rest of the family and such like," she said, absent-mindedly sketching concentric patterns in the ground.
Well, when she said the 'rest of the family', that wasn't quite accurate. Madeleine had absolutely no idea how big her family was. The families she knew were all interwoven and connected, like a warren, and several of her friends (not least Russ) had turned out to be related to her. But because she didn't know most of her family - for Chrissake, she'd never even met her own uncle! - it made Madeleine realise that family isn't always flesh and blood.
"Mum and Dad are moving up to Lylis Glen at the minute, where my grandma lives - that's where I'll be staying this summer."
Unfortunately, there was no time for moving to other camps. They'd have to resign themselves to stir-craziness for a while, then...
"Nana's been - ahem - "absolutely dying" to meet you since she first heard about you, and she's determined that now we have the summer, I've no excuse not to invite you back. So she told my parents to come up, and to invite some of our friends... I'm really sorry about that," she added, with a laugh. "Some of them are a bit nuts. So if you're free, and your parents don't mind, would you like to come up?"
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Post by Kira & Lee Norris on Jul 10, 2008 14:41:08 GMT
"To... you mean, to one of the camps?"
He'd had a feeling it might be something like that, but still, it was really... kinda... nice to hear it. Ever since he'd found out about Madeleine's heritage, he'd been eager to learn as much as he could. Actually going to one of the camps would be the perfect way to do that. But it wasn't just that. This would be Lee's first opportunity to meet the rest of the family he was marrying into.
And Madeleine's grandmother just sounded interesting.
"I'd love to," he smiled.
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Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Jul 10, 2008 15:00:29 GMT
Her heart suddenly jumped at that, and she smiled.
"Great!"
It was great. He'd agreed, without a question, and she felt that he meant it when he'd said that he'd love to. Ha, even her parents hadn't scared him off.
Apparently her mum was determined to make up for her past reactions, which should be a good thing, but Madeleine was a bit... worried. Sometimes her mum could display her mum's tendancy to go overboard.
"You don't have to stay in the trailer," she offered. "If you'd be more comfortable in my nana's house, that's fine, we can stay there and you can stay at camp in the daytime, if you want."
Hopefully he'd rather stay at camp. Madeleine wasn't so keen on the idea of staying in Lavender Fields at night as well...
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Post by Kira & Lee Norris on Jul 10, 2008 15:31:22 GMT
Oh, a house? Thank goodness. Lee may be keen on this whole gypsy thing... but there was no denying he'd feel slightly more at home armed with the basic knowledge that if camplife ever got to much for him, he could run and shut himself behind doors for a while.
It was also a relief to hear, because... well... he wasn't sure. Did trailers have toilets?
"I'm totally flexible," Lee said carefully, "er, what would you prefer?"
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Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Jul 11, 2008 18:10:09 GMT
Madeleine shrugged. "No preference; both have their pros and cons. I should warn you though, my grandma can be quite... exuberant at times, and you never see her coming... Oh! And under no circumstances let her get a photograph of you. She can have a bit of a... scary sense of humour."
Though she'd always insisted it was Shaun's karma for teaching her how to use Photoshop in the first place. He'd kind of deserved it.
Cecelia, however, hadn't.
"It doesn't really matter to me where, I mean, we'll probably be outside most of the day, it's only really where we sleep. So you're on your own with this one," she smiled, teasingly.
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