“Everybody boo,” Asha grinned as my mouth dropped. “You have one big, weird ass family, including us now.”
“Oh!” Isis shrieked as she looked at her phone. “Ayira is probably the second most famous person in the Underground now! Look at how they’re talking about her! That's all they can talk about!”
“They probably don’t want to mention what Maggie did at the games.”
Isis showed me her phone where there were dozens of pictures and videos of Ayira and people talking about Ayira the Dragon Princess. The long hair, the blue eyes and blue flames in the comments, it was all over the socials in the Underground.
“She’s the next…Namir? The first woman to win the games…” I read out loud before looking at Ayira who shrugged.
“I do not know what that means, but maybe my father had to know all about this and sent the dragon my way. I just know it.”
“Babe!? Babe!? Look who it is!” Asha suddenly yelled into her phone. She flipped the screen around, showing a man with locs driving behind the wheel. He had round glasses and pointed ears when he glanced down at the facetime call and chucked his chin up in a silent greeting.
“Is this the boyfriend you’ve been hiding?” I asked, taking the phone.
“He is one of the planners behind the stadium too,” she boasted. “When I told him what was going on, nobody, I mean nobody expected you or Ayira to pull up. We just knew they were going to use something to keep everyone contained inside, and he had it to where the emergency exits were charm and spell free at the last minute. Now did it work? Somewhat,” she shrugged. “But it was the best idea I could come up with. Babe, I will call you when I’m about to go to sleep.”
“Aight,” he said. Asha groaned with her phone pressed against her chest as she fell back.
“Why is my man the coolest mothafucka in the world!?” She screamed with a kick of her feet.
“She’s so in love,” Isis groaned playfully.
“And the dick is bomb! Ugh!”
“Get a hold of yourself,” Quan snapped. “Nobody cares–––”
“Obviously you do Garfield of the Bikini Bottom head ass–––”
“Wait, wait wait,” shaking my head as I gave Isis back her phone. Before those two could go at it, I wanted to hear everything. “Start from the top. What happened while we were gone?”
Annnnnd so begins the tales of what happened when Ayira and I disappeared for a night. From a missing idiot named Xavier Martin to a peculiar woman named Himora Clarke who I…am related to? My grandmother was in Savannah in what they’re calling a retirement home? When the hell did that happen and what did she retire from? It was all so much to process but when the bedroom door opened again, we all turned our heads to look, seeing my dad, Reginald Norwood, Bellamy Holmes, and the little one only known as Aunt Raven, standing in the doorway. Gasping, I scrambled to my feet, seeing my dad’s eyes widened in surprise at the sight of me before we immediately clasped each other in a tight hug.
“My dad and my best friends in the same room!?” I let out with a drop of my head before singing towards the ceiling, “that’s craaaaazy!”
Then I heard her voice call out my name. The pain in my heart and the thorn at my side knew how to call a child’s name. As soon as I heard MAGGIE?! I bolted down the hall until I saw my mother standing by the front door. She dropped the bags of ice. Her usual weight which gave her the plump motherly look of a healthy woman was all but gone. She held her arms out with tears, actual tears coming down and then I saw the blood form from the corner of her eyes. All the questions I had for this woman were answered in a single drop of blood as we held each other and cried. I almost knocked her back out the front door when I saw two more people walking up with a baby in a car seat. A tall light skinned man that was all smiles when he saw me and a rigid woman with bright orange hair and square glasses.
“About time y'all came back!” Raven shouted before tapping the back of my leg. “That’s my twin brother right there. That’s your Uncle Trevor and Aunt Himora with their baby Dawn.”
“Hey hey family!” Trevor shouted, holding up a grocery bag in one hand while carrying the car seat in the other. Raven immediately went to unclick the baby out of the seat to hold as she walked back in the house. He came up the steps and smiled down at me while my mother still held on.
“I guess I’m your niece?” I asked.
“Aside from the freakish God shit you did at the games, you seem more normal than the rest of em,” he said. “I like that, stay like that. Sick of all this magical bullshit anyway, and yes. I’m your mom’s older brother so that makes me your uncle.”
We both laughed as he stepped inside, and I just knew my mom was going to have a time with him if that was her brother. His wife, Himora, stepped up shortly after and stared at me.
“Interesting,” was all she said.
“Himora! Don’t get all weird on her! Come here!” Trevor shouted. I extended my hand out as she adjusted her frames on her face.
“Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise. When you have a moment, I would like to speak with you,” she said, ignoring my hand as she walked in. Okaaaaaay, weird Aunt in the family is officially scratched off the bingo card.
“Maggieeeeee!”
I knew that squeal from anywhere. I pulled from my mom to see cousin Lovely running back into the house barefoot with Draco and Carmilla coming in from behind. Everyone was here, even a pregnant Maze!
