Sensing I won’t be needed for a while, I grab a water from the couch and slip out the back door to see what the girls are doing. The sun beats down on the dark blue patio, and I take in the beauty of the waves crashing into the ocean bluffs.
“Hi, Kayla!” Hadley greets me while she mixes something together in a large bowl.
“Hey. What are you making?”
“I’m making a non-Newtonian fluid out of cornstarch and water that I’m going to put on the subwoofer over there so the sound waves will make it dance.”
“…Why?” I ask. She spoke so quickly, I’m only half sure I know what the words in her sentence mean strung together in the way she said them.
With a bright smile, she responds, “Because I can.”
“Is it like slime?” I ask.
“It’sbetterthan slime.” She sticks her tongue out of the corner of her mouth as she stirs.
“And you have permission to do this?”
“Well, nobody said Icouldn’t…today. But it’s totally safe.”
Artie drapes plastic wrap on an overturned subwoofer while Avery drips food coloring all over the surface, and I’m only partially convinced of the safety of this experiment.
“Alright, girls, are you ready?” Hadley asks, looking around at us before scooping a spoonful of white goo onto the well of the speaker. “Hit it, Av!” She points, cueing her sister to play somemusic from the phone in her hand. The pop tune has a nice beat, and we all crowd around to watch the sound waves at work, bopping our heads together to the rhythm. The goo starts rippling, like a puddle surrounded by heavy footsteps as the beat drops in the song. Little rounded globs peak and dip with the music, like gnomes having a dance party. The colors mix, making a mesmerizing display of hues as everything swirls and blends into a colorful rave.
“I see they roped you into a science experiment,” Kendall says from behind me with a chuckle.
“Yeah. That was so cool! I’ve never seen anything like it.” I smile as he walks over to stand next to me.
“The boys showed me your portfolio in there… I hope that’s okay.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s fine. It’s not private or anything.”
“Some people don’t like sharing their work until it’s completed. I didn’t want to mess with your flow.” He holds up his fingers, placing the wordflowinto air quotes. “You’ve got a good eye for detail. It looks amazing.”
“Oh, thank you.” My face flushes at the compliment. Navigating this new father-daughter aspect of our relationship makes me feel a little clumsy. Neither of us really knows where to begin, which leads to long pauses and nervous laughter.
“You’re welcome.” He takes a beat, letting an awkward silence settle in between us. “I wanted to run another thing past you, if that’s okay?” He waits for me to answer, which is something I’m learning to appreciate about him.
“Sure, what’s up?”
“I don’t know if you already have plans with your mom, but how would you feel if Artemis, Hunter, and I visited you at Salima State over Labor Day weekend? We thought it could be nice for you to show us about your life there and spend some quality family time. Only if you want to, of course.”
I guess this is the next step in getting to know them all better, seeing as summer is quickly coming to an end. I’ve been sofocused on navigating this new dynamic with them around here, I haven’t considered what we would do once we all got back to our lives. And Mom is a whole other issue. Aside from a few messages with her checking in, we haven’t talked about any of this mess. She’ll still be traveling when I go back to school, and if I’m the Princess of Avoidance, she’s the Queen.
“I think that sounds nice,” I say, offering him a smile.
The smile he returns is just as big as he nods. “Okay, good. I’m looking forward to it.” We stand in another uneasy silence before the door behind us creaks open.
“Hey, Kayla, we need you…” Chase says from the door, running his hands through his hair.
Hunter leans back on the couch with his fingers laced over his torso, glasses resting on his tipped-back head like he’s just gotten home from a long day’s work.
As soon as I’m over the threshold, Chase says, “The images from your idea board needed to be decoded from their proprietary format and then reconverted to the word processing format. We made a template and formatted it with every feature you said you wanted. Hunter’s going to show you how the different features work inside the template. He’ll have you try it to make sure you’re comfortable with the sketch transitions, and then you’ll be ready to insert everything and upload it into the presentation software.” The words flow from his mouth quickly and efficiently, like I have any idea what he’s talking about. My mouth drops as I try to translate the tech speak.
“What—why are you looking at me like that?”
I snap my mouth closed, but my eyes stay narrowed as I try to keep up with how fast he’s talking. With a nervous chuckle, I respond, “I’ve just never seen this side of you before. Either of you.”
“Your girlfriend just called us nerds, bruh,” Hunter says from the couch.
