"Woah!" Teagan laughed and turned his groundhands so that his wheels wouldn't catch on the floor and make him fall, letting Irena spin him around. Finn was getting more comfortable now, still mostly focused on what he was doing rather than Teagan and Irena spinning, but he was doing pretty well. "What time do you want to go bowling?" Teagan asked Irena curiously.
.jpeg)
Irena slowed the spinning, but continued it anyways.
"I think we should all meet at the intersection we always part ways at, at about half past dayover. It'll take us about 25 minutes to get there, so cosmic bowling will be just about to start, or already started depending on our pace I guess."
"Sounds good to me." Teagan shrugged, content to spin for now. Finn faltered for a moment, but caught himself and continued skating around the rink. "What time is it now?" He asked curiously watching his brother as well as he could while spinning.
Irena smiled and looked down at her watch.
"Nine." She told him.
"we can leave now or stay until the rink closes at ten." She suggested.
Teagan nodded a bit. "We should stay a little while longer, at least. Finn seems to be having fun now that he's gotten the hang of it." He laughed softly. Finn kept going around the rink, smiling to himself.
Irena let go of Teagan's hands and skated up to Finn, catching up to him easily.
She made sure to stay next to him while the music played and echoed in the empty rink, in case he fell and needed help getting up.
Finn waved to Irena when she approached and then stuck his grabby limbs back out again to keep his balance. He wasn't going especially fast, but he seemed more stable and like he was enjoying himself anyways. "This place closes pretty soon, right?"
Irena nodded.
"In about exactly 3600 seconds." She told him kindly.
She skated in front of him and turned around, skating backwards again.
"Do you think you're ready for this?" She asked teasingly.
"Ah? Ready for what?" Finn asked, bumfuzzled. He continued skating normally for now, but kept his peepers on Irena with a bewildered expression. "What are you plotting, woman?"
Irena shook her head and grabbed Finn's hands, spinning him in a circle.
"Do you think you're strong enough to lift me while skating?" She asked curiously.
"Uh, I'm strong enough to lift you, I'm not sure if you want to trust my balance with both of our weights, though." Finn replied, raising an eyebrow questioningly. "I'm really not very good at this yet." He held tighter to Irena when she spun him, nervous about falling again.
Irena laughed and nodded.
"I was just joking anyways, but we have to try and do a lift before we graduate at least." She said quietly, letting go of Finn and making sure he wouldn't fall.
She then began to skate around the rink as fast as she could, letting the twins only get glimpses of her as she passed.
"Alright, if you say so… I'll need some more practice before then." Finn laughed softly and watched her go, his peepers widening upon seeing how fast she was able to go. He kept out of her way as well as he could since he couldn't go nearly that quickly.
Eventually, the rink was closing and they had to return their skates so they could head out.
As Irena was taking off her skates and slipping her thin groundhands into her black slip on vans, she pulled out her phone, read the text she had just gotten from Beatrice and frowned, groaning in anger as she stood up to walk out.
"Cam ditched Bea you guys." She announced to the both of them "she's like really upset, she keeps asking me if I think she's unlovable…"
"Hm?" Finn and Teagan looked up from tying their shoes when Irena spoke. Teagan scoffed as though he'd expected something like this to happen, and Finn looked concerned. "Is she okay? Is she back at your house now?" Finn asked. "We should probably go check on her."
Irena nodded and smiled at Finn's consideration for her younger sister.
"yeah, she's at home, I told her we're on the way." she checked her phone again "but she said she doesn't want anyone to see her the way she is, apparently the date went really bodge and he ditched her halfway through to hangout with another girl that was wherever they went and she came straight home, she walked like exactly 3600 seconds to get home and is looking pretty…bodge is what she said."
"Well, we're coming anyway." Finn huffed, crossing his grabby limbs. "And we'll give that stoopid Cameron kid a piece of our minds, right elixir of tranquility?" He turned to his brother, who seemed slightly surprised to be addressed, but nodded anyways. "Right. Let's get going, then." Finn headed out, gesturing for the others to follow him out.
Irena shrugged and slipped her phone into her pocket and they left the rink, waving to the employees and calling their thanks to them.
once they got to Irena's house it was dark and the streetlights were casting their yellow glow on everything.
Irena unlocked the front wobbly flip-shutter with her house key and led the two of them inside, shutting the wobbly flip-shutter after them.
Finn followed Irena into the house and looked around, but didn't see anyone obviously. Beatrice was probably hiding in her human containment unit.
"Beatrice! We're back!" Finn called out. "You can come out now!" He sighed and crossed his grabby limbs, waiting to see if she would come down. "Maybe she'll want to come to bowling. Do you think that would cheer her up?" He asked Irena.
Irena shrugged.
"I don't think you guys would understand but… when something like this happens it hurts and Beatrice is already self conscious enough, imagine what she felt like when Cameron ditched her for that other girl, her self confidence is probably destroyed." She told them and began to go up the steps.
She knocked softly on Beatrice's bedroom wobbly flip-shutter and it swung open revealing a disheveled Beatrice.
He shirt was hanging off one shoulder, showing her double foam dome strap, her hair was wind whipped and her cheeks showed mascara tracks. Her peepers were puffy and red.
Beatrice saw Finn and Teagan behind Irena and slammed the wobbly flip-shutter, the click of the lock could be heard. "Go away." Beatrice shouted through the wobbly flip-shutter.
Irena turned to Finn and Teagan and pointed to her open bedroom wobbly flip-shutter.
Go. She mouthed at them now.
"Yeah… I just don't really know what to do to help her." Finn sighed, following Irena upstairs with Teagan in tow. They stood behind her, looking concerned when they saw Beatrice and jumping when the wobbly flip-shutter slammed in their faces. Upon being directed to leave, Teagan did so, and Finn reluctantly followed him. They sat on Irena's bed, quiet for a moment.
Teagan looked over at Finn and noted how genuinely concerned he seemed, feeling a bit guilty for not being as bothered. He wasn't the biggest fan of Beatrice, if only for the way she always seemed to drool over his oblivious brother. But she hadn't really done anything right. He'd figured that something like this would happen with Cameron, so he wasn't surprised. Finn always saw the best in people, and he was clearly upset and worried for Beatrice despite not returning her feelings. He was still trying to think of something he could do to help, but it didn't seem like Beatrice wanted them around.
Irena knocked again and spent five minutes trying to persuade Beatrice to come into her human containment unit with them, she finally agreed, but not before cleaning herself up a little first.
Irena walked into her human containment unit and Beatrice followed, her thick chestnut brown hair now brushed, her skinny jeans on correctly, her tight crop top now on correctly and her cheeks mascara streak free, as she had reapplied it when cleaning up, her lashes were now curled and long. Her peepers showed traces of being puffy and red, but not as much as before.
Beatrice avoided peeper contact with both Finn and Teagan and made her way to the corner, sitting in Irena's beanbag butt holder.
"Tell them what Cameron said." Irena instructed, Beatrice looked at her in terror. "come on Bea, you'll be lucky they don't deathsnuggle him once they hear this."
Beatrice shook her head and then looked down and muttered something no one could hear.
Finn and Teagan were uncharacteristically quiet when Irena had finally convinced Beatrice to come into the human containment unit. They both looked up, and Finn hopped up to his groundhands, ready to do whatever was needed of him. He kept quiet at first, not wanting to make anything worse or interrupt anyone, but even his heightened hearing wasn't enough to catch quite what Beatrice had said. He took on a bumfuzzled expression and tilted his head to the side a bit.
"Ah? What was that? Are you okay?" Finn asked worriedly. Teagan looked bumfuzzled as well, but kept his mouth shut.
Beatrice took a deep breath.
"He doesn't want to date someone like me, im to flat is what he said." She paused "And he doesn't want to be my replacement for Finn either, is what he also said."
She looked down at the ground, purposely avoiding peeper contact with all three of them.
Irena sat with her mouth agape and quickly snapped it shut, her mouthstones clinking together.
She hadn't expected Beatrice to say the last part out loud, just the first. And now she wondered if now once she stated this, that Finn would know she liked him.
"Ah?" Finn looked angry at the first part, and then bumfuzzled for a moment at the second. It took him a few seconds to do a sort of double take and flush, and he looked over at Teagan, who gave him a look that implied that he'd known all along and Finn was dense for not noticing.
"W-Well he… he shouldn't say stuff like that! It's shallow and douchey and if he's gonna treat you like crap, you shouldn't hang around him anyway." Finn eventually managed. He huffed and crossed his grabby limbs to further push his point.
"Yeah, freshman guys suck in general, but that's still low." Teagan added, crossing his grabby limbs as well.
Beatrice nodded and said nothing.
Irena stared at Finn, then her sister, then back at Finn.
You seriously didn't know? She mouthed to him and rolled her peepers.
"their right Bea, don't let it get to you." She told her sister.
"That's easy for you to say, everyone loves you." She spat at her older sister and Irena looked taken aback.
Finn shrugged and gave Irena an incredulous expression, silently telling her that he was, in fact, that oblivious. He then turned his attention back to the matter at hand.
"Well, if you won't take it from Irena, take it from us." Finn added, figuring that Beatrice was just lashing out and didn't really mean it. "Everyone hates us. We've done nothing, and yet most people around here want us dead, our parents included. There's nothing you can do about assholes sometimes, okay? They're not gonna change, and if they're gonna be that way over something you can't control, then they're not worth jack shit. Neither is their opinion of you."
Beatrice lifted her peepers and stared at Finn, a small smile on her lips.
"Thanks." She told him quietly "but I think it's about time that you listen to your own advice.
"Well, yeah, but this isn't about me." Finn replied, flushing lightly in embarrassment. He didn't always do the best job of ignoring people, but in his defense, people were really cruel to him and Teagan. "You can try and ignore the opinion of one stoopid freshman boy, yeah?"
Beatrice forced a smile, but the waver in it said that she was close to tears.
"I mean…" she tried to explain "it would be easier if he never showed any interest in me at all, plus he's the only guy that has shown interest in me since about fifth grade."