Who: Sera and Miriam When: Tuesday evening, October 17 Where: Home Status: Complete
It was several hours after dinner, but Sera found herself longing for something else. Her stomach felt strangely hollow, and she figured she might as well go downstairs and see if anything in the kitchen struck her fancy. The house was quiet as she crept downstairs on bare feet, dressed in a PINK sweatsuit, her long hair in a loose braid and her face without makeup. It was a Sera that very few people ever saw, the most unvarnished version of herself there was.
She knew, of course, that it was terrible to eat late at night. Maybe she was about to get her period, she thought. Why else was she so freaking hungry and crave-y? It was annoying. Once in the kitchen, she started rummaging through the pantry. Hmm, caramel sea salt flavored rice cakes. That was a possibility. She pulled out the bag and squinted at the nutritional facts label.
Miriam was making the rounds, picking up the house as she did at the end of every day. She kept a clean house, but it took work, as well as constant upkeep. It was definitely easier now that her kids were grown, but there were still little things here and there--dishes to be moved to the dishwasher, shoes to be taken to someone’s room, and mail to be sorted and thrown away. It never failed that she would find an empty wine glass hours after dinner, in the living room or bedroom, and she picked it up to take it back down to the kitchen.
She was surprised to see the light still on, she could have sworn she’d turned it off, but then realized that Sera was there, in the pantry. “A little late for a snack,” Miriam said as she began to rinse the glass in the sink.
Sera jumped slightly, not having heard her mom come in. She weighed herself twice a week and recorded it down to the decimal point, and she’d actually been down half a pound the last time. Thus, she decided not to take Miriam’s comment offensively. “I know,” she said, turning around with the rice cake bag in hand. “I don’t think 70 calories of mostly empty air will hurt me much. I’m still hungry.” She brought the bag over to the island and opened it, taking out one cake. It could be as little as 35 calories if she decided not to have another, so that was something.
Miriam turned to look at what Sera was holding and nodded. A rice cake wouldn’t hurt anything, so long as she didn’t smother it in peanut butter or something. She didn’t think Sera would though. She took good care of herself. She took after her mother. “If you’d like,” she said, then turned to face her daughter as she dried her hands. “I had dinner with your brother last night. He was asking about you.” Or really, she’d updated him on the bus accident, which he’d somehow not known about. While Miriam felt like it was big news, she realized Caius had a lot on his mind right now. A high school accident only impacted him once he knew his sister was on the bus.
Sera had the type of figure that could round out very quickly: small in the waist and wider in the hips and thighs. She was determined she wasn’t going to let that happen, no matter what. Luckily, cheerleading kept her in fine shape, and once she was out of high school, she’d find some other form of exercise. She took a bite from her rice cake and chewed, then spoke once her mouth was clear. “He texted me last night. I’m going to have dinner at his place tomorrow.” She’d thought that she should call or text Caius after the accident, but then it had completely slipped her mind. There had been a lot going on.
Miriam nodded, making note of that and adjusting her plans. She’d always been glad that her children got along as well as they did, despite the age difference. And the lack of magic. She knew Sera was a bit bitter about not having it and she could understand, but there was nothing she could do to change it. “That’ll be nice,” she said conversationally. “He’s under a lot of stress right now.” A bit of an understatement, but she didn’t want Sera worrying about something she couldn’t do anything about. She did enough of that for the both of them.
Caius was probably Sera’s absolute favorite person in the world, so there was that. The whole curse thing made her nervous, and when her mother said Caius had been under stress, she wondered if Miriam was referring to it. She didn’t know if he’d told their parents that Sera knew about it, and she didn’t really want to ask. There were some cans of worms that should not be opened late at night. “Mm-hmm,” she said, then crossed to the fridge for a bottle of water. “We always have fun even if we just sit around. Maybe you and Daddy could do something romantic.” She stuffed another bite of rice cake into her mouth once she was back at the island.
Miriam wondered if she should fill her daughter in, aware of how angry Caius had been from having it kept from him. But the curse didn’t effect Sera, and hopefully never would. She had other things to worry about, like her grades and the football game on Friday. Miriam didn’t want Sera losing sleep at night the way she was, and Miriam thought she would be if she knew her brother’s life was in danger. “Maybe,” she said with a huff of a laugh. She didn’t need her daughter trying to inject romance into her marriage. There was plenty; they just kept it from view. “Any boys in your life, dear? Other than your brother.”
Sera was more of a realist, yet at the same time it was nice to think about her parents still having some romance left in their lives. Maybe one day she’d have some, herself. “Oh… not really,” she said to her mother’s question. “I’m always on the lookout, though.” Stories about how she’d flirted with a hot older man earlier or how she still hooked up with Cam Malone sometimes wouldn’t be anything her mother would need to hear.
“No one?” Miriam asked, trying not to meddle, but it surprised her that Sera didn’t have anything going on. She was beautiful, popular, and a cheerleader. She could have any boy she wanted. It made her worry that there were other things going on in her daughter’s life that she might be preoccupied with, be it school or friends or anything else. “Are classes going okay?” She knew she’d been distracted herself and she might’ve missed something that was going on, but she was trying to keep up. Miriam had always been good at juggling her commitments, but lately she’d been more stressed than usual.
“Maybe it’s just high school boys,” Sera said after chewing another bite of her rice cake. “They’re immature.” It wasn’t necessarily a big deal to her; she didn’t feel like she’d failed if she wasn’t dating someone all the time. She was picky now the way she should have been to start with, in her opinion. She smiled, amused yet pleased that her mother was asking questions, as if the lack of men in her life meant there was a problem. She might be seventeen but it was still nice to know her mom cared and was paying attention. “They’re not bad,” she said. “My lowest is a B in History. I have trouble staying focused in there.”
“They are,” Miriam nodded in sympathy, though she did laugh softly. “It gets a little better when you go to college.” But in most cases, they’d still behave like children. Even grown men could be horribly immature from time to time. But Sera would find that out in time. Miriam poured herself a glass of water, then leaned back against the counter. “Why’s that?” she asked, referring to Sera’s focus. She wasn’t at all worried about a B in History, but she was curious about the reason if it was more than history being boring.
“I hope so,” Sera said. She imagined she’d go to college, because why not? She’d started looking at different ones online, wanting to see what her options were. The sky was the limit for the most part because it wasn’t like she’d have to depend on a scholarship. Her grades were fine but definitely not Ivy League. She played with her water bottle as she thought about History class. “I’m not sure if it’s more the teacher or the material,” she said with a little shrug. “He talks like this.” She lowered her voice to a near-monotone and made it softer before smirking.
There was no question in Miriam’s mind that her daughter would go to college. She didn’t see any other option. The real question was what college, which they would start looking at soon enough. Once Sera narrowed it down to a handful, they could start visiting campuses and making plans for her future. “It is difficult when the teacher drones on like that,” Miriam smiled at her daughter. “I found that, when I had a professor like that, it helped to take a lot of notes. It forced me to pay attention. If all I was doing was listening, I’d drift off, too.”
“I take notes,” Sera said. “Sometimes I draw pictures on them too. It’s the only way to stay awake.” She popped the last of her rice cake in her mouth and decided against a second one; that and the water had dulled the edge on her hunger. She’d be fine until her protein shake in the morning. Wrapping the twist tie around the package, she got the excess air out and walked over to put it away. Once she’d wandered back to the island, she grabbed her bottle of water to take upstairs with her. “I guess it’s bedtime,” she told her mother with a smile. Or, more aptly, time to change into her sleep shirt and make sure she hadn’t missed anything on social media before trying to rest.
“Smart girl,” Miriam smiled. Sera was doing well. There was no reason for her to worry just because her history teacher was a bore. So long as she maintained a B in there and As in most of her other classes, she’d finish high enough in her class to get into a good college. Miriam turned to make sure the kitchen was clean, putting the last of the dishes in the dishwasher as she gave her daughter a smile. “Sleep well, sweetheart. I’ll see you in the morning.” She was glad at least one of them could get a good night’s rest. Miriam would do much better once the curse was put behind them.