Chapter Text
When I went in to work the next day, I bought the lining fabric; other people would be starting to think about getting their homes ready for fall and winter and I didn't want to lose out because I procrastinated. I didn't see any fabric I wanted to use for the part facing into the room, but that was ok, it was only August and new fabrics came in a few times a week. I kept the paint chips in my purse so I could be sure to match them. I was thinking maybe some kind of floral because all the other fabrics in my room were solids or stripes. I also got a few more pillow forms since I could start work on more throw pillows, for the window seat as well, and tucked these things into my sewing room when I got home.
The next day the show contestants were back, and the twitchy guy found me. "You were right about that fabric," he said. "It sucked to cut out, even, I was lucky not to be sent home. This time we're doing swimsuits and a dress/coverup that a woman could wear out to dinner after a day on the beach. I'm looking for something really graphic for the swimsuit, but I don't see anything that really catches my eye. Is that all there is?"
"Let me check in the back," I said. "We might have something that's not out. What color do you want?"
"It doesn't really matter as long as it's bold," he said, so I hurried back to the workroom where everything was added to inventory and priced. As luck had it, we had two new fabrics, one a geometric print in royal blue and white, and a Klimt-style, gold swirls on black. The clerk said that these were probably the last swimsuit fabrics for the year since it was late summer, and I took them out to the front where Twitchy looked relieved and chose the blue one and zipped off to see what we had in gauze for his dress. I went to add the black bolt to the other swimsuit fabrics, where it was snapped up by another competitor who practically ripped it out of my hands. I was glad to hear the airhorn as the contestants stampeded toward the cutting table and we started picking up again. I'd be glad when the show was over, but the publicity was good for the store. We'd already seen an uptick in customers who'd heard about the show and wanted to see why we'd been chosen to provide the fabrics, and the first episodes hadn't even aired yet.
After this excitement, however, the day was kind of boring; traffic was light and we didn't have much to do. It was a perfect time for one of our senior clerks to help my education in sewing garments, which I hadn't really started. So we looked at patterns and I learned why weights or types of fabric were specified. I learned what the markings on the patterns meant and a general sequence of steps to use for construction. How to lay out the patterns and cut them out. When pinking shears should be used. Just that little bit of knowledge took all afternoon to learn, and it was just the tip of the iceberg. Even on the way home my head was still buzzing with all the information.
I'd been reminded by Deri's questions that I'd thanked my relatives for their help, but since it seemed likely that we'd be leaning on them for help with Deri's room, it would be nice to do something to show my appreciation. I didn't know what to do for Uncle Steve, I'd have to give that some thought, but I knew that Grandma and Grandpa liked flowers, so I went to a florist and got two pretty bouquets, one for Grandpa Henry's workshop and one for Grandma Rose to put wherever she wanted. Grandma was at one of her coffee shops, but Grandpa was pleased to take delivery of both and arranged one on his desk. "You didn't have to do that, honey," he said. "I was glad to help. It was fun and easy." I showed him pictures of the finished room and he said it looked wonderful, and that he'd be happy to help Deri as well. "I had an idea, too," he said. "How do you feel about making the top of the window seat so that you can lift it and use underneath for storage? I can just run a saw across the back part to split off a bit, attach some hinges. You could store some extra pillows there, whatever you'd like. It would take about half an hour." I agreed, of course, it was a great idea.
After dinner, Deri handed me some papers. I unfolded them to see a couple of photos of a professionally decorated room, with squares of paper that she'd colored in with pencils attached. The colors were bright and there were a lot of them. And the design had no relation to the actual space in her room. "Uh, I don't think this is going to work, Deri," I said.
"Why not?" Her lower lip jutted out pugnaciously.
"Well, your room just isn't big enough, for one, the ceilings aren't nearly high enough. And how are you going to pay for all this? There isn't any furniture like this up in the attic."
"You could help," she suggested. "You've got a job."
"I'm willing to use my discount to help with your fabric, sure, but I'm not paying for your room. There are still things I'd like to do for mine. You get an allowance, same as me."
"I don't have much left," she said. Mom had a frown in her voice when she asked where all her money had gone. Here, there; Deri was spendthrift and she had twice as much dance gear as I did, even with the first pair of Peterovs I'd gotten.
"Speaking of that, did you do those exercises for your feet and legs the way you were supposed to?" Dad asked.
"No, it would have looked weird at camp," she explained. "Besides, I forgot. But I can start, Ms Kerry said she'd put me in pointe shoes this fall anyway."
"She said that if you did your exercises, you could start," Dad said. "And apparently you haven't. We've been warned by experts about the damage you could do to your feet and legs if you tried before you were ready, and if you don't care enough to prepare according to the directions you were given, you will not be getting toe shoes. And you're not going back to Kerry. You can join Mr Cal's studio."
"Why?" Deri wailed. "I like it there! My friends are there and Ms Kerry's nice."
"She tried to bribe your sister into not telling us why she was told not to come back by offering something that you're not ready for, and you think she's a nice person?" That was Mom, and she sounded wrathful.
"I can't believe you're being so mean! You're ruining everything," Deri complained to me, and grabbed the photos back. "You're just jealous that my room will be so much better."
"It looks like a unicorn barfed up a bunch of rainbows," I said, and she slit her eyes at me. "Whatever, tween." She couldn't argue with my word choice, but it was killing her that she wouldn't be a teenager until November.
It got unpleasant from there, and Dad caved, like I worried he would. Not about the dancing, that was non-negotiable, but about her room. Deri would have to tone down the design, but the parents would pay. "What happened to all that talk about us learning the value of money?" I asked, offended. I hadn't asked for help buying things because they felt it was important for us to understand that. Deri smirked at me.
"We'll reimburse you for your room, dear," Dad told me. "Deri, don't look at your sister like that. We've got enough on our plates that I don't want to deal with this."
"Then I'm not going to help," I said, standing up. "As usual, Deri's given whatever she wants. Way to teach discipline."
"Lysippe," Mom said. "Don't speak to your father like that."
"Why don't I get whatever I want, then? I plan and use my own money, do most of the work myself, learn how to do it, and I get rewarded with a chandelier and a rug out of the attic. You say that we're supposed to be learning all sorts of good values, but that apparently doesn't apply to your favorite, who's going to get all new stuff."
"What other values are we applying unequally?" Dad was sarcastic.
"Mom's always preaching historical authenticity, but when I had to wear that dress for Halloween, I did the research so that it would all look as right as I could, and she said it was too much and I couldn't even wear the stupid dress." Mom sighed. Yes, I can hold a grudge.
"It was a school party," she said impatiently.
"And I didn't even get to choose. You and Alan chose the dress I could wear, while the brat got to choose her costume. And she ripped it, but I bet nobody said boo about it." Deri looked annoyed.
"It was just a stupid party," she said snidely. "Who cares?" I do.
"And let's not talk about the party. I bet Deri's Sweet Sixteen will be freaking awesome." Dad rubbed his head, Deri rolled her eyes, and Mom... just sat there. It's a pain not to be able to see her face. I shook my head. "And the whole 'of course we don't play favorites, we treat you equally.' Do even you guys believe that anymore? You know, this summer was going pretty well. I really thought that---well, it doesn't matter. Deri's back and nothing's changed."
"What did you think, Lys?" Dad asked. I shook my head again. "Lys."
"I thought that you were starting to see me. You asked real questions, you were interested in what I was doing. But now the questions I get are routine. 'How was your day? Work go ok? Good. Let's hear another fascinating half an hour about Deri's thrilling conversations about idiot stuff and what she's going to do with her friends."
"At least I have friends, loser," she shot at me, and I turned swiftly and had my hand raised to slap her. I realized what I was doing just in time, though, and stepped back.
"You're not worth getting into trouble for," I snapped, and left.
I wondered what had happened at camp as I stomped up the stairs. Two months away and she was insufferable. Before, she at least always tried charm first, and she'd been sensitive about what had happened. Whatever. I went out the window to my happy place.
I'd been tempted a couple of times to tell Deri about how awesome it was out here on the roof, but I didn't want to be responsible if she slipped on it. And times like these made me grateful that it was only me seeing the stars. Ok, well, it wasn't dark enough for that, it was just getting on to twilight. But I stayed out, drowsing, letting the hurt dribble out of me. The boldest stars started to glimmer and I felt a little better. I know that the light is billions of years old, that it comes from dying or dead stars, but I just love the starlight. It helps me feel more connected to the universe, it's kind of reassuring that in the grand scheme of things, my disappointments and hurts aren't anything. I sat up and leaned against the chimney, preparatory to going back inside, when some movement on the treeline drew my attention.
Holy crap, that was one big owl. No, wait. What the hell? I leaned forward and watched as a bird person flew around the orchard. Was that Hawkwoman? No, the wings were beating and hers only changed angles. The figure did a playful serpentine through the trees and my jaw dropped. The next time she turned in my direction, I stood up and waved. The figure drew up, hovering briefly, before flying over and settling on the roof next to me.
"Hi, Grandma," I said.
"Lys, baby," she said, stroking my hair. "How'd you get up here?" Grandma Alex looked around.
"My room's right over there, and the windows are large enough to get out of, the screens retract so that the winter storms don't damage them. There's a large ledge running around, the stone edges on the corners are prominent, it's easy to climb up onto the roof. I thought your wings were gone."
"I just never said that I still had mine," she said. "Let people assume what they want."
"Can I...?" I waved my hand and she smiled and wrapped her wings around herself. "That is so cool," I said, astonished, and touched the soft feathers.
"They're a lot like bat wings, it turns out," she said. "Except that they have feathers." And as if on cue, one drifted away and landed on the roof. I squatted carefully to pick it up. "Grr. I hate molting."
"Can I keep it?"
"Sure, honey, just don't say where you got it. I need to keep the secret. So what brings you out on a lovely night like this one? I'm personally just stretching my wings."
I found myself telling her all my troubles. She's a great listener. "You couldn't pay me enough to be a teenager again," she said, shaking her head. "I've got a few thoughts, if you'd like to hear them." I nodded. "Younger siblings are uniformly a pain in the ass a lot, but part of that is because they look up to their older siblings. We just don't always appreciate it." A sour smile twisted my lips. "She wouldn't have asked for your help if she didn't think what you did wasn't amazing. Is that too many negatives in there?" She sighed. "It's just been a long day. For what it's worth, I think you going to a new school is a great idea, a fresh start. You might want to consider going by a new nickname there. Wayne isn't an uncommon name, and if you ask, the school will probably use it in the classroom records. It'll give you some distance." We chatted a bit about my parents, and she urged some patience. "They're only human, doing the best they can. They wear a lot of hats. And being a parent isn't easy itself. I'm on my second go around and Damian and I aren't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, and we have a lot of experience. Before I go, though, can I see your room?"
"If you're quiet," I teased a little. "Deri's across the hall and I don't want her knowing where I go." Grandma laughed and we walked down to the edge. I tucked my feather into my shirt for safe keeping and swung down, Grandma watching, then she followed. She looked around when she got in.
"This is wonderful," she said softly, looking around. I showed her the little special parts, explaining how her dad was going to make the window seat into a storage unit, and she smiled, complimented everything, then stroked my hair again and told me it was going to all work out, then launched herself out the window. My grandma is even cooler than I thought. I stroked the feather once more and carefully placed it in my vanity drawer.