Chapter Twenty Six: Holiday Cheer — Part 6

Paige stands quietly, waiting to be dismissed. Heath wonders if this discomfort in her belly, this burning desire to punch Paige in the nose is what Jynx feels when Heath stands by, head bowed, waiting to be talked to. She thinks about how easy her day will go now that she has something like Paige working with her, why Daria would choose to make Paige work for her. Paige smiles sheepishly, shifting weight between one foot and the other. Heath considers the list of things that still need to be done, and how quickly those things will finish themselves, come tomorrow.

“Be in the kitchen at seven in the morning.” Heath says. “We got a big list tomorrow.”

“Yes Miss.” Paige says politely, dropping into a curtsey before leaving.

Paige walks away quickly, heading to her room, Heath staring at her as she leaves. Heath will be early to study with Blake. Heath smiles, thinking that maybe having Paige around won’t be so bad, if it gives her more time with Blake . . . Paige is out of sight before Heath decides to walk back to her room to get to her reading. Blake has seen her go in there, and will undoubtedly come by when he’s done with his own work. She knows if she gets a hand up on the study, the two of them will have more time to talk.

Paige makes it all the way to her room before she lets her guard down, but Paige is still Paige, even in the room. She’s only been gone about three hours total. It is hardly a full day’s work, but she knows also that Heath decides the hours and times. She lets out a deep sigh and sits down at the edge of the bed, where Jynx and ChoCho are still cuddled up. The two are sleeping hard, and will probably be up all night for their napping so long into the afternoon. Paige loves Jynx, and can watch her sleep with both interest and pleasure. Kevin, and therefore Paige, is very much so infatuated, perhaps even in love, with ChoCho, who has an arm over Jynx at the moment, his head at an odd angle so he can draw breath while holding her. Both are wrapped against the winter chill in a thick blanket. The two of them in one place makes Paige feel warm from her fingers to her toes.

Paige looks at her hands: sore from scrubbing; small cut well tended. She pulls her knees to her chest, knowing from experience that the skirt will cover what it needs to. Paige starts to nod off. She hopes that tomorrow will go more smoothly, that Heath will be more comfortable with Paige, and that she won’t cut herself again. Sitting upright, her head on her knees, Paige falls asleep. It would look uncomfortable to anybody else, but to Paige, whose back is sore from scrubbing floors, the stretch feels wonderful.

* * *

Daria is sitting in the kitchen when Heath comes in to get herself a snack and some water while she breaks from her studies. She’s sitting at the table, a large white bottle of saké just pulled from a pot of freshly boiled water. Her face is flushed red, and she’s obviously a little on the puckered side, her smile a little lopsided. She nods to Heath, who takes a moment to sit at the table and eat her snack.

“Hey pretty thing, I saw you got done early today.” Daria says, forgoing the small cup to swig from the bottle. “Usually you’re running around, pushing cloth across tile, making things pretty as you go at least until five or six at night.”

“The new girl, Paige. She’s working out okay.” Heath says. “Have to try not to call her Kevin, though.”

“She would probably only answer with ‘Paige is not Kevin, Paige is Paige’ or something just as cute.” Daria offers Heath the bottle, and Heath declines. “I saw you looking at my girls’ bum earlier, just so you know.” Heath looks suddenly scared, starts to stammer, and Daria laughs, puts back a hard swig of sake, and exhales reflexively. “Don’t you worry your head now. I’m not a jealous cat, and I know your heart. I know she’s pretty on the eyes, and I am quite certain your girl crush is totally harmless.” Daria laughs again, because Heath starts to stutter out a defense, but her laugh is loud enough to drown out Heath’s unformed words. “Besides, I know Paige. She isn’t a whore. She won’t try to slip between your sheets, or anybody else’s. Her heart lies … elsewhere. You seem to have a question, sweets.”

“I asked Paige something, I don’t remember the way I asked it, and she said you was the one who told her to be my left hand.” Heath says, trying to be subtle. “I uh, I don’t know if I need a second left hand.”

Daria’s tone, which had been playful, even a little obnoxious just moments before, becomes quite serious, cutting, perhaps even stern. “Paige needs this.”

Heath sees how sober Daria suddenly looks, as if the chemical humor of the saké has been washed from her blood. “Oh . . . kay.” Heath smiles quietly, and Daria smiles back, a lightness returning to both of them. “I told her to be to work at seven in the morning. Could you tell her we gonna do our thing at nine. I think she’s gonna make my ten hours fall back to five.”

“What will you ever do with all that free time?” Daria takes another swig, and then offers it to Heath, who surprises both of them by taking the saké to her lips.

Heath takes a deep swallow and hands the bottle back to Daria. The sweet fire of the saké hits Heath’s cheeks, and she smiles playfully. She’s finished her sandwich without noticing the nibbling she’s done while talking. She stands up quickly, feeling a little slippery on her feet, like the world might be leaning one way or the other. This is a little funny to her. She can feel the saké in her sinuses, and it makes her want to giggle.

“Gotta make with the writing.” Heath dismisses herself, “I wanna be done with those words when Blake comes in.”

“I’m sure you do, sugar.” Daria says, finishing her saké with an earnest swig.

Daria leaves the bottle and cups on the table, and the pot on the stove, walks quietly back to her room to check on her friends. Jynx and ChoCho had gotten up and gone hiking early in the morning, and the two are now asleep. The pillow is in place over the windows, the shutters drawn against the cold, and the room is almost too dim to navigate. She finds Paige sleeping sitting up, close to the feet of the other two. Daria nudges Paige awake, is careful to maneuver Paige so she can pull off Paige’s clothes. Daria rolls off Paige’s stockings and her dress, strips her to her panties, and lays down with her on the piled quilted mattress that the foursome uses for their bed. Daria holds Paige, longing to be tired enough to take a nap.

Daria wonders, and not for the first time, if she’s kept her grip on reality, especially where Kevin and Paige are concerned. She remembers back to when Kevin first wanted into her bedroom, first wanted into her pants. It seems an eternity since then, since she suggested, more as a tease, that Kevin borrow one of her skirts so Daria’s mother wouldn’t object to having the boy in her room. What had happened when Kevin put on that dress was something both profound and irreversible. What had happened was Paige. It hadn’t been a gradual transition, but a complete snap of personality. Kevin and Paige, she knows, share a sort of tenuous relationship of memory, but Paige, as she will tell you, is Paige, and Kevin is Kevin. Jynx rolls over, opens her eyes, stares straight into Daria’s eyes, smiles.

“You think too loud.” Jynx whispers.

Jynx takes Daria’s hand and guides her gently off the bed, away from ChoCho and Paige, out into the commons, sits Daria in front of the fire, and returns from the kitchen with two glasses of reconstituted orange juice powder. She sits down, stares into the fire, enjoying the heat and comfort of the blaze. The fire is in its midlife. She will need to add wood in an hour or two.

“So Kevin as now Paige.” Jynx says.

“Except when bathing.” Daria answers after a sip. “That is why I ordered him to tend to ChoCho on such matters.”

“Any idea why Kevin is Paige, except when bathing?” Jynx says.

“Penis envy?” Daria giggles, sounding a bit flat. “I think I broke my little toy a long time ago, so now Kevin is Paige.” Daria answers.

“Kevin’s not broken.” Jynx corrects. “I think it will be good for ChoCho, having somebody like Kevin bathing with him.”

“I thought so too.” Daria sounds like a good little girl. “So, any hope that I might know ChoCho’s secrets?” She’s needling for gossip again, but Jynx isn’t known for talking.

“Only if you have the courage to ask ChoCho, and he has the desire to tell you. No games Daria, not with either of them.”

“I’m not trying to make this a game.” Daria says.

Daria feels the heat of the fire mix with the heat of her drinking, and finds herself horizontal all of a sudden, her head on Jynx’s lap. Jynx has just missed losing her juice over it, and Daria’s cup is already empty. Daria falls asleep rather unexepectedly, snoring lightly. Jynx is a little envious, having just been bothered into wakefulness, but stares into the fire just the same, enjoying her time with Daria, the moment of peace. Joe sits down with his back to the fire, so chilled from working outside that Jynx can feel the cold air trickle up against her leg.

“Thanks for the heads up about Kevin and Paige.” Joe says. “Wouldn’t want to make that one cry again.”

“Never a problem.” Jynx says.

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