Name: kay_brooke
Story: Unusual Florida
Colors: Ember #9 (choleric), Harvest Gold #3 (crisp breeze), Zing #12 (you've obviously mistaken me for someone who cares)
Styles/Supplies: Canvas, Seed Beads
Word Count: 989
Rating/Warnings: PG-13; no standard warnings apply
Summary: Jaime Wood and her family
Note: Funny story: in the original, original version of UF, Jaime Wood was the main character. In subsequent iterations she was pushed aside more and more until she wasn't really there at all. But here's a little scene with her and her family anyway. Constructive criticism is welcome, either through comments or PM.


Jaime always supposed the one thing her parents regretted about having five kids so close in age was that once they all hit high school, their interests exploded in all different directions. It couldn't be easy for two people to keep track of what five kids were doing at once.

So when all those specific, individual interests dove-tailed into one event, it became a major family outing. One that Jaime couldn't get out of no matter how much she wanted to.

In this case, it was Homecoming.

Of the five of them, four were still in high school, spread across the grades. Only Sandy had escaped to college, but even she was coming back for Homecoming, because it coincided with her fall break. Jaime could think of at least a dozen things she'd rather be doing than sitting through a high school football game with her parents and her older sister, but if everyone else was going, then she had to go, too.

"I'm sixteen," she complained to Sandy. She was draped across her sister's bed while Sandy tried to pick from approximately fifty bottles of perfume. "I've been left on my own for years. Why can't they let me do it tonight?"

"It's kind of a big deal for Mom and Dad," said Sandy. "Besides, it's Homecoming. Aren't you into Homecoming?"

"No," said Jaime sullenly. "It's a stupid tradition that glorifies our sports-obsessed culture and encourages bullying and vandalism. School pride is for losers, anyway."

"You didn't get asked to the dance, did you?"

"I didn't want to go to the dance!"

Sandy turned to her, holding out two bottles that looked exactly the same. "What do you think? Summer Rose or Lotus Blossom?"

"Why do you need perfume? We're going to a football game."

"Doesn't mean I can't look or smell nice," said Sandy, finally deciding on the pink bottle over the other pink bottle.

"Then I don't want to sit next to you," said Jaime. "You're going to stink up the stands. Worse than the football team."

"Not doing so well this year?"

"Apparently not," said Jaime. Not that she paid attention to any of that, but A.J. was a senior on the team that year, starting running back, and she got to hear all about it, whether she wanted to or not.

"Maybe they'll rally for Homecoming," said Sandy.

"What do you care? You don't even go to school here anymore."

"I guess I'm just a loser with school pride," Sandy snapped. "Now get out of my room. I need to get dressed."

Jaime flounced out of the room and down the stairs, almost running over Daven, who came charging down the hall. "Have you seen my sticks?" he screamed at her before disappearing into his room.

Jaime blinked, and a second later Daven reemerged, empty-handed. "Where are my sticks?"

"How should I know?"

"I lost my sticks!"

"Daven!" And that was her dad yelling. "Get a move on or we're going to be late!"

"I can't find my sticks!"

"You have thirty seconds. After that, you find your own ride to the school."

Daven ran his fingers through his hair. "Where are they?" he asked no one in particular, his voice high and panicked.

"Can't you just, like, borrow someone else's?" Jaime asked. "They're just drumsticks."

"They're mine," he screeched. "My center is going to be pissed. She'll make me play with dead ones. She'll make me run laps. I have to find them!"

"Daven, your father is leaving!" her mom's voice floated up from the living room.

"Hurry up, Daven!" This from Kary, Daven's twin. They were both freshmen this year, and this was their first Homecoming. Daven was in the marching band, and Kary was a cheerleader. A good one, apparently, as she'd made the varsity squad. Jaime had never had an interest in cheerleading. She had done gymnastics until puberty had wreaked havoc with her center of balance, and she saw cheerleading as an activity for people who weren't good enough for gymnastics.

"Go," said Jaime, pushing her brother toward the stairs.

Daven went, moaning, "I am so dead!"

With Daven, Kary, and Jaime's dad all bundled out the door into the chilly October night, Jaime's mom pointed out the soup sitting in the crock pot, in case Jaime wanted dinner. Jaime had a bowl while her mom went to get ready--honestly, it was a football game, what did they have to get ready for? Sandy wandered downstairs, made a face at the crock pot, and opened the fringe.

"Mom made soup," said Jaime unnecessarily.

"With chicken," said Sandy. "I'm a vegetarian."

"Since when?"

"Since last year! Don't you pay attention to anything?" Sandy pulled out a container of leftover salad, lifted the lid, sniffed it, then put it back in. "Do you people eat anything other than meat?"

"I think there's a bag of carrot sticks way in the back," said Jaime. There wasn't, but Jaime took some glee in watching her sister root around for the non-existent carrots. When she found nothing and turned around to glare, Jaime said, "That was a disparaging joke, by the way."

Sandy slammed the fridge door shut. "Point of that?"

"Vegetarianism is stupid?"

"Find a new adjective," Sandy snapped. "You're getting a bit old for the surly teen look."

"It's not a look!" said Jaime, but Sandy had already left. Jaime stuck her bowl in the dishwasher perhaps a little more roughly than she intended, but nothing broke, so what did it matter? Her mom popped her head into the kitchen a few moments later to tell her they were leaving, and to once again refuse Jaime's request to stay home alone.

So Jaime grabbed her jacket--brown leather, bomber jacket style; like she would be caught dead in a school hoodie--pulled it on, and trudged out to the car after her mom and sister.