Chapter 1.19 No Strings Attached?

Throwing up is far from a nice thing.

Very, very far from a nice thing. This was already obvious to Erin, but it was made even more clear as she was kneeling down in front of the toilet in the upstairs bathroom.
Afterwards, she managed to stand up on fairly shaky legs, her knees were still a little sore from when she pretty much threw herself onto the tile floor.

She walked over to the mirror, seeing if she looked okay on the outside, even though she felt like crap on the inside. The sickness feeling had a familiar feeling to it, one she couldn't quite remember... It was a while ago when she had the bad feeling, she knew that. She just couldn't quite remember why or when she felt this bad.
She tried to go back into her bedroom, and crawl back into bed, but a wave of sickness hit her as she went out the door, and she slid down the wall with her back pressed against it.

Erin rested her head against the wall, but looked up again when she heard footsteps. She smiled softly at Thomas "You look really important dressed up in that." She grinned weakly.
"So you like a man in uniform, huh?" He grinned back, a little surprised she was up this early. Usually when she was up, it was usually because she was hiding something. "What are you doing up so early though?" He couldn't help but ask, as he went over to her.
"I woke up at about four feeling sick. I couldn't get back to sleep so I stayed up." She murmured, pulling her legs up to her chest. "I'll probably be either in my bedroom or that bathroom most of today." She mumbled.

He went over to her, and sat down near her "If you want, I can take the day off today to make sure you're alright." He raised an eyebrow slightly.
Erin shook her head, sighing softly "I'll be fine. I've been sick before and I recovered from that, didn't I?" She frowned a little, then stood up slowly. "I'll be in my room, tell the kids that I'm not feeling all too well." Her voice was no louder than a murmur when she stumbled into her room.

About an hour or two later that day, Rosie reached into the fridge to get some breakfast. It was another snow day at school today. Its not like she didn't mind, but she was missing her ballet lesson! She was about to get some juice when she saw a message wrote on the back of it.
"'Gone to work, Erin's not feeling well so don't bother her too much today. Stay out of trouble and I'll be back later. Happy birthday Princess'." Rosie read it out loud, smiling a little as she did. She was a little disappointed that her Daddy still had work today, but what could either of them do? At least she had Connor to keep her company.

"What do you wanna do today?" Connor asked, fairly absently as he was more concentrated on building some sort of tower.
Rosie shrugged, thinking as she looked over the blocks. She honestly wondered how anyone could find this fun. It was as boring as fishing... Fishing... Her eyes lit up when she got an idea "Let's go ice skating!" She grinned, looking at him.

"Ice skating?" He asked, a little confused "We only went to the fair yesterday, what's the point in going again today?" He furrowed his eyebrows.
Rosie rolled her eyes "Not at the fair, on one of the lakes. Its frozen enough to and its not like we'll fall in." She shrugged.
"O-On the lake?" Connor sounded nervous, not liking that idea all too much. "It'll crack though! And what if one of us falls in and drowns?" He frowned, obviously uncomfortable with the idea.
"Oh, come on." She sighed, annoyed "We won't fall in and it's too shallow to drown in. We'll be fine."
Reluctantly, he murmured "Fine. We'll go."

"I'm still not so sure about this..." He watched as Rosie went out on to the ice.
"Its perfectly fine, see?" Rosie smiled, as she knocked the ice with her blade. "Perfectly fine. No holes, and only little scratches." She began to skate around, smiling as she did. "You can be such a wuss sometimes!" She sighed.
"Are not!" Connor quickly snapped back, not wanting to go through this again.
"Are too!" She called as she skated backwards, grinning. "Wussy wuss wuss!" She called, giggling as she skated off.
"Are not!" He scowled, and soon put on his ice skates and joined her. "Would a wuss do this?"

Connor tried his hardest to catch up with Rosie, but by the time he got on, she was already on the other side of the pond. He didn't want to skate across the middle, so he went a little faster. "Rosie! Wait up!" He yelled, trying to catch up with her.
She turned her foot to stop "Huh?" She asked, looking across at him "Did you say something?"
"Yeah, wait up!" He called, and watched as she smirked and skated off faster.

The two of them kept going around and around until he started to get dizzy. He looked across to try and see where Rosie was still racing around the pond, when he saw a girl over on the bench. She was sitting all by herself. He decided to go over to her, and see if she wanted to join in.

"Hey, I was wondering if you uh... If you uh..." Connor stumbled over his words, nervous. Why was he so nervous talking to this girl? Sure, she was pretty, but why was he nervous?
She kept looking at him, and he started to wonder if this girl actually heard him. Maybe she was deaf? He tried his hardest at sign language, which just made this girl giggle "I'm not deaf." She spoke softly, smiling at him "But I'm pretty sure you just said that you were a cat-duck." She giggled more, much to Connor's embarrassment.

"Okay... So you're not deaf and I'm not a cat-duck cross." Connor murmured as he sat down. "Why don't you come skating with me and my sister?" He asked, half smiling. He wanted to seem friendly to this girl. "She can be a little mean sometimes, and she's not too smart but she's mostly nice."
The mystery girl shook her head "Nuh uh. Most people tease me." She looked at Connor, then at her hands, "Mainly because of my ears." She whispered, feeling uneasy.
"You're ears?" He asked, confused. He watched as the mystery girl pulled back her hair a little, biting her lower lip "Oh..." He mumbled.

"I don't really see what's so wrong with them. They look like elf ears." He grinned, then frowned when he realized he may have offended her. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that." And he was off stumbling over his words again. "I-I thought they were quite pretty. I mean, a lot of people look quite similar around here, apart from that blue family..." Since when was it hard to talk to girls? "I think I should go." He mumbled, knowing when he was going down into a bad spiral.
The mystery girl frowned a little, and took his hand before he could go "Don't. Stay. I like talking to you." She smiled softly, "I'm Sabrina." She introduced herself, grinning. "And you?"
"Connor." He replied, looking at her. "Do you go to school here? I haven't seen you around before." He began to wonder where this girl came from, and who she actually was.
Sabrina hesitated, before saying "I just moved here." She was very basic with her answer, not giving away anything that didn't need to be said.
"Why would you move here?" He couldn't help but ask, a little confused. Sure, Dragon Valley was a nice place, but hardly anything ever happens here.

"Bad things happened here." She whispered, frowning. "And I'm here to make sure they don't." She spoke quietly, scared about if someone will hear her or not.
Blinking, Connor mumbled "I don't get it."
Hesitantly, Sabrina explained "There's a really bad person here. A bad fairy." She started, frowning. "Just one thing though, you can't tell anyone what I'm about to say."
He nodded, confused "O-Okay." He stuttered, looking at her. A fairy? A bad one? Maybe this girl was crazy... As far as Connor knew, fairies weren't real.
"This bad fairy turned a mortal into a witch." She crinkled her nose, annoyed. "That's an incredibly dangerous and stupid thing to do. Mortals, such as yourself, are really fragile beings. Kinda like they're made of paper and glass." She then smiled a little, "No offense."

"A little bit taken." He said, but shrugged it off anyway. He knew that he wasn't all too strong so it didn't bother him all to much. He did smile a little when he heard Sabrina laugh though. "Just one question. What can you do about it? You're a kid, like me. If you tell anyone, they'll tell you to stop imagining." He frowned.
Sabrina sighed "The only thing I can do is to try and find the new-turned witch and help him or her." She mumbled. "I can't take my own revenge on the fairy, but I can at least try and lessen the damage caused."
"So... You're like a magical helper?" He asked, tilting his head. "But why are you here? I mean, shouldn't you be looking around?"
"I was told that she was here..." Sabrina trailed off. Connor furrowed his eyebrows, confused. The only two other people here were him, and Rosie. It certainly wasn't him at least, but Rosie...?

Almost as if on cue, Rosie came over to Connor. "We should probably get going. My Daddy's home and it is my birthday." She grinned, almost using that as an excuse to do whatever she wanted. She didn't notice the girl who was sat next to Connor though.
His eyes flitted from Rosie to Sabrina, and back again both times. He raised his eyebrows at Sabrina, silently asking if it was Rosie she was looking for. The slight nod of Sabrina's head just created even more questions.
"Hello? Earth to Un-Birthday boy?" Rosie sang-spoke, waving her hand in front of Connor's face. He could be so absent minded sometimes!
"Huh? Oh yeah, time to go." He mumbled, and got up. He half smiled at Sabrina, and she waved back. Unsatisfied by not getting her way, Rosie started to pull Connor away, while he was grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

Rosie was a little disappointed when Erin didn't come downstairs for her birthday. However bad she was feeling, it must be really bad! Why would she not be there for Rosie otherwise? 

That didn't damped her excitement though. She couldn't wait to be a teenager! She could finally date boys too! She closed her eyes as she blew out the flames on the candles. 

A few feet taller, and a edgier outfit later, Thomas frowns at his now teenaged daughter. He honestly didn't like the clothes she was wearing, whether it was in style or not, she shouldn't be wearing half a shirt. Obviously he knew he couldn't say anything about it without her probably throwing a rant. He knew that he had to ask for someone's help...

He walked into Erin's room while speaking "Hey, would you mind talking to..." He trailed off, realizing she was probably asleep. He bit his lower lip, starting to feel a little guilty, "Sorry."

"I'm not asleep." She murmured, staying laid down. Even though her voice was slightly muffled, he could hear that she was nervous about something. She sighed, and sat up "There's something I need to tell you." She frowned, looking more nervous than she sounded. What did she need to say? He sat down on the opposite side of the bed.

"What do you need to say?" He asked, honestly unsure of why she was so nervous.
"Its really not an easy thing to say..." She trailed off, frowning. She sighed softly "I'll just tell you later." She shrugged, trying to come up with any excuse not to say what she needed to.
"Just tell me." He shrugged, not seeing what the big deal was. It probably wasn't even all that important, "Whatever it is, we probably won't remember it." He tried to make her feel a little more confident about saying whatever it was that needed to be said.
She had to bite back a sarcastic comment. She took a deep breath, and just said it, "I'm pregnant."

Time seemed to slow down for both of them as a horrible silence filled the room. At least ten minutes had passed before Erin finally spoke "Can you please say something? Or at least react?" She frowned, looking at him. She was getting really freaked out by now, and she didn't even care if he kicked her out, not that he would, she just wanted him to say something, anything.

He cleared his throat before talking "It is mine, right?" He asked, gazing up so he could look her in the eyes. 

She nodded softly, and half smiled "What kind of girl do you think I am?"

"I don't know what you do in the day." He half smiled back, then sighed "So, what are we going to do?" He asked, mostly out of curiosity.
She frowned, and mumbled "I know that what I'm going to say certainly isn't the best thing, but I want us to stay friends." She looked away quickly "I always screw up relationships, and I don't want to do that." She looked back at him, biting her lower lip slightly "I care about you, and our friendship too much to screw it all up."

He nodded softly, a little upset to be fully honest. Its not like he didn't have at least slight feelings for her, but part of him did want at least a semi-normal family. "At least this time we're more stable." He mumbled, smiling a little.
She couldn't help but laugh at least a little, "We almost couldn't afford both Connor and Rosie." She remembered, smiling back. "At least this one can have a proper room." She mumbled.

"An upstairs room too." Thomas chuckled lightly, half smiling. He couldn't help but think about how much the little house has changed and expanded. 

There was a short silence, before Erin spoke quietly "When do you think we should tell Rosie and Connor?" She asked. That was probably the only thing she was even slightly worried about now, that and the fact that she was older this time.

"We'll tell them when the time's right." He shrugged "Not tonight though." He wanted to clear up. Rosie was still his little Princess, even though she was a teenager now, and he certainly didn't want something to upstage her birthday.

"We'll be okay, right?" She whispered, looking up at him again. 

"Of course we will." He smiled reassuringly, and moved over to hug her. She hugged him back fairly tightly, resting her head on his shoulder. She honestly felt a little better about all this after telling him, just adding to the reason why she didn't want to date him. Its not like she didn't have those feelings for him, it was because she cared about him too much to ever damage what they have. She loved being with him and living with him, and the thought of that ever ending because of her broke her heart to think about.

Chapter 1.18 Snow Day                                                                                       

Chapter 1.20 Reactions

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AN: Ahahahahaha! I finally remembered this! 

I was going to leave this on a cliffhanger, but then I though 'Nah, I'll be nice.' Right now though, I kinda hate the family structure roles... 

I probably won't update until the weekend, I have shows on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday so that'll take up my time.