Story: Middle Part 31
[[Continuity Note: Rock can do magic too. How convenient.]]
The four teens and the Aldus patriarch and matriarch gather in their traditional meeting place for important discussions.
Mrs Aldus and her daughter are seated on the love seat to the the left, with the three boys left on the sofa, Alf in the middle. Mr Aldus cuts to the chase immediately as he lounges in his usual chair. "Let me guess. Since Rock's sitting here and it's the first time he's taken part in one of these important little discussions I guess he's the one who's come into his magic next?" he said with a smile.
Jessica and Rock smile and nod in response. The other boys merely acknowledge Mr Aldus' supreme deduction skills with a nod.
Mrs Aldus sits looking a little shocked. "That's wonderful, Rock. Your mother will be so proud of you."
Rock merely beams. With all his dreams coming true at once, you could hardly blame him.
"But I'm guess you kids haven't checked the book yet, have you?" Mrs Aldus added. "Since you didn't when Damien came into his power."
Rock shrugs. "My name's never been in the book. I don't know why it would be in there now. Are your names in the book?" he asked, turning to Alf and Damien.
"No," Alf replied, shaking his head. "It's all a bit strange."
Meanwhile, Mrs Aldus had summoned the book and was flipping through it. She frowned. Not here.
"It doesn't matter anyway," Mr Aldus dismissed. "The boy's an Aldus, I'm sure it's just been latently inside him all this time."
The two female Alduses exchanged a look, though, as the boys ignored what was presented to them. Alf thought there was something to worry about too.
"Anyway, that's all we wanted to tell you Aunt Karen," Rock said, standing and pulling Alf to his feet as well. "We'll be off now."
Rock tugged Alf from the room, and the pair were followed by Jessica and Damien. "Check this out," Rock said, as he twirled a finger and one of the painted portraits toward the ceiling of the room they were in floated down towards them.
"Put it back Rock," Jessica said, sternly, hands on hips and a mother hen. She would be a great Aldus matriarch when it came to be her day.
"Fine, fine," Rock stated, putting it back, but not before sending it zooming around the room. If this was in Harry Potter, Alf thought. The people in the portrait would definitely be complaining of air sickness.
The rest of the afternoon was spent reigning in Rock's inherent need to play with his magic. The fact that he'd been deprived of it for seventeen years of his life meant that he desperately wanted to use up that seventeen years of magic in one afternoon. It didn't take much to goad Damien to going along with it, either, leaving Jessica and Alf to try to curb their enthusiasm. Alf wasn't too much help either, as he found most of their antics hilarious. So Jessica had to play mother hen the rest of the afternoon.
At about six o'clock, Rock and Damien had tired a little, though they were hanging out in conjured cocoon hammocks dangling from the tallest trees at the back of the Aldus estate. It was all Jessica could do to stop them from magically enhancing the trees' heights. That would be easily spotted if they were much higher than the rest of the forest.
Alf and Jessica were sitting together on a branch watching the two as they swung when Alf commented that he was rather hungry. Within a second he knew that he shouldn't have mentioned anything because before he knew it, there was a picnic blanket and an assortment of rich foods laid out in front of him. Damien and Rock were already sitting on it, sampling a variety of the treats. "Oh come on," Damien coaxed, and Alf was already across, sitting on a corner of the floating fabric.
Jessica eyed it all suspiciously, casting an eye over their spread. And spotting the beverages in an ice bucket, she found what she was looking for. "Rock, please don't tell me you were intending to get drunk while levitating ten metres off the ground."
He laughed as the other boys' attention was drawn from their snack to the bottles of champagne in the ice. Jessica's frown deepened in response. "Oh don't scowl like that Jess," he admonished, waving a hand and making the alcohol disappear. "You'll be old and wrinkly before your time."
Carefully, she cast a hand over the enchantments, making sure that if nothing else, the four of them would still be sitting on a blanket alive, before nodding her approval and stepping from her tree branch onto the carpet.
"Finally," Alf grinned. "Live a little would you."
"And die a little sooner?" Jessica asked as she placed a slice of blueberry pie on a plate. "No thank you."
And so the four of them laughed and ate as though they'd been best friends since the dawn of time, unknowingly under the watchful eye of the Aldus parents.
[[End scene.]]
posted by Cedric @ 12:00 pm
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