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Placing the appropriate sheet music on the stand for her next student, Vanya debated with herself whether she should answer the phone when it began to ring. She didn’t really have the time, but she decided she better check it wasn’t important. “Vanya Hargreeves.” she answered with her full name, just incase it was a student wanting to book.
“Hi...” a woman softly replied, which didn’t really clear up who she actually was. Vanya looked to the clock, nervous about being late for this kid. He was kind of a brat. His parents were even worse. “It’s Allison.” the woman continued, which still didn’t give Vanya much detail. Did she have a student’s parent called Allison? “Hargreeves.” the voice added on, noticing Vanya’s silent confusion.
After the book release, Vanya had received some crank calls regarding her family. They were incredibly annoying. She was sick of it. “Look, I have a student soon - I don’t have time for prank calls. So unless you’re going to book in for lessons, I’m gonna hang up.” she sternly gave her usual dismissive statement, wishing people would finally grow tired of doing this. Vanya really didn’t need repeated reminders of how much her family loathed her. “No, Vanya it’s actually Allison.” she explained quickly, before Vanya could just hang up on her. It definitely wasn’t Allison. Her sister despised her. “When we were kids we started a no boys allowed club... but they ruined it when Klaus insisted he should be allowed to join, then Diego said it was sexist,” Holy shit, it was genuinely Allison. “And Luther told on us to dad.” Vanya and Allison said in unison.
Five and Ben had been too engrossed in mathematics and literature to care, even at that age. Ben had later told her he’d thought their club was a wise idea. Five had said he didn’t care either way, all of his siblings were moronic regardless of their gender. That was probably one of the only times Allison ever involved Vanya in anything. It was difficult for them both being so outnumbered by the boys growing up. Vanya had been outnumbered by them all anyway, literally. Being Number Seven was painfully isolating. “Can I call you back later, since it’s a bad time?” Allison suggested politely. Vanya could hardly even bring herself to speak. She wasn’t sure when she’d last spoken to Allison. Years, definitely. Vanya timidly nodded, then rolled her eyes as she realised Allison couldn’t see her. “Sure... call me in an hour.”
—
Waiting for Vanya to pick up, Allison felt unbelievably nervous. She hadn’t spoken to her sister in a long time, and especially not after the book. Allison felt terribly guilty for how they’d collectively treated her, and for not reaching out after the memoir. It had been a clear cry for help. Obviously Allison could just rumor her sister if things went awry, but she was reluctant to do so. Things needed to be addressed, so they could both move on. “Have a good lesson?” Allison playfully asked, since Vanya hadn’t sounded very excited about it in their last call. “The kid is so bossy, he kinda reminds me of Five... but not in a good way.” Vanya jokingly answered, sounding just as fond of their missing brother as she had been as children. Five was arrogant and bossy, but it was admittedly endearing. Perhaps Allison just wore rose tinted glasses, though. Their brother had now been missing longer than he’d ever been with them. The memory of him was unfortunately quite distant. “Yikes. Better you than me.” Allison lightly replied, finding the idea of all the bad bits of Five utterly unappealing. An awkward silence spread to both ends of the call.
They both spoke over each other at the same moment, trying to fill the tense lapse of conversation. They chuckled softly, both as uncomfortable as the other. “You first.” Allison insisted, glancing over her shoulder to check Claire wasn’t destroying the place. It was likely she was going to have to be rumored into behaving soon. “Oh... I- I was just saying I don’t even know when I last heard your voice, that wasn’t on TV.” Vanya drawled bashfully, sounding like she felt stupid for even saying the words. Allison felt a twang of guilt, knowing Vanya was so easily self-deprecating because of them. “A looong time.” Allison remarked with a wistful grin, sad to admit that she couldn’t even remember their last conversation. Vanya was the only sister Allison had, how could she continuously treat her like this?
“I saw your last movie...” Vanya admitted shyly, which was quite embarrassing. The last movie Allison did stunk. Diego had called her purely to be a dick about it. “Wow, I’m sorry to put you through that.” she teased, kind of shocked that Vanya would actually watch anything with her in. Allison expected Vanya to have avoided her like the plague. “It wasn’t so bad.” her sister replied unconvincingly, obviously still as keen to be polite. Allison snickered, aware that definitely wasn’t the case. “So you teach violin now?” she hastily questioned, wanting to prevent another lull in the chatter. “Yeah, it’s definitely not as glamorous as Hollywood.” Vanya dryly commented, though there was a tinge of bitterness in her tone. Allison cringed, knowing the resentment was deserved.
Hopefully that didn’t sound too bitter, Vanya didn’t want to make things even more volatile. “Hollywood isn’t that great anyway, everyone’s a narcissist.” Allison hypocritically complained, which was difficult for Vanya not to chuckle at. “Wow... that must be terrible.” she teasingly droned, assuming her sister fitted in very well with those crowds. It wasn’t Allison’s fault she was in love with herself, it was just how she innately was. Like how Vanya was innately quite the opposite. “Can you believe Luther’s on the moon?” Vanya blurted the first thing that came to her head when the line fell silent again. Did she offend Allison with her teasing? If Allison read the book, she would have gathered that Vanya was of the belief she was a narcissist. Maybe that wasn’t a good topic to make light of, the nerve was probably still raw.
Why did Vanya have to bring up Luther?! He was the worst possible subject, second to her regrettable book. It was like Vanya just kept shoving her foot further in her mouth. No wonder they all hated her. Vanya bit down on her lip, becoming steadily nervous from this strained conversation. “Oh, I can definitely believe it. He’d probably go to hell if dad told him to.” her sister made a very fair point, since Luther would do practically anything for their father. “I kinda feel bad for him... he’s so brainwashed.” Vanya murmured, meaning what she said. Even if Luther had never been all that nice to her. Talking about Number One with Allison was just plain awkward, Vanya decided to speedily change the subject. “How did you get my number?” That came out far more blunt than she’d intended. Why was she such an idiot?
“Pogo.” Allison replied immediately, finding Vanya’s frankness quite funny. It was deserved, since Allison had never called Vanya before in their entire lives. “He sounded so old, it was kinda freaky.” Allison continued, still rather thrown by the chimp’s aged voice. How old even was he? How old was dad? “Do you think he has grey hair now? Like, does that happen to chimps?” Vanya quipped with curiosity, making Allison stop to think. She had no idea. Allison blew a raspberry as she thought, finding the picture of him with grey hair pretty funny. “Don’t ask me, you’re the smart one.” she humorously complimented Vanya, just stating the objective truth. “I think you’re confusing me with somebody else. The smart ones are gone.” Vanya once again insulted herself. They both fell into quietness again as they reflected on her last sentence. It had sounded like a slip of the tongue to bring up their lost brothers.
It was like every sentence Vanya said just got worse. “Sorry, I don’t know why I said that.” she cringingly apologised, feeling like she wanted to smash her head into the wall. How was she still so bad at socialising? “Don’t be sorry!” Allison quickly reassured her. The sound of the child Vanya assumed was her niece was growing more rambunctious in the background. “I miss them so mu-“ Allison cut herself off to muffle the mic and reprimand her small daughter. Vanya missed them too, more than she could ever say. Five and Ben crossed her mind every day, in some shape or form.
“Sorry, sis. I’m gonna have to go. It’s been nice to talk to you... finally.” Allison remorsefully said her farewell, something Vanya hadn’t thought she’d ever hear. She’d never thought Allison would speak to her again, for the rest of their entire lives. “It’s been nice to speak to you too. Can you...” Vanya cringed, hoping Allison wouldn’t feel this request crossed the line. “Can you say hi to Claire for me?” she diffidently asked, even though she knew her niece wouldn’t even know she existed. Why would she? “I definitely will, she asks about Auntie Vanya all the time.” Vanya’s mouth fell slightly agape, completely blown away by that admission. Didn’t Allison hate her guts?
“I guess I’ll see you in your next movie.” Vanya thought aloud, since she knew there was no way Allison would ever want to actually speak to her in person. Hanging up the phone, Vanya wondered if any of that had been real. Auntie Vanya? That was deeply comforting to hear, even if she knew Allison would never call her again. Her sister’s conscience was likely somewhat cleared now that they’d briefly broken their disownment. “Auntie Vanya...” she delightedly murmured to herself, counting her fingers to make sure this wasn’t a vivid dream.