Chapter Text
Avery
The first thing Avery noticed, as she stepped into The Hawthorne House, was silence, and knowing the Hawthornes, silence was never a good thing, especially considering Max and Xander were both home this weekend.
It wasn’t like the quiet of a large house, more like a careful, observant silence that came when someone was about to jump out and scare you-
“Prepare yourself for a bracing encounter!” called my scone eating BHFF.
I wasn’t exactly shocked that Xander was the first one to greet me, but I was a little surprised and disappointed that Max wasn’t with him. I hadn’t seen her but for a few short talks in the last few weeks, and I was really looking forward to catching up with her, and seeing what the status of her and Xander was.
“Bracing, Right. On a scale of one to Grayson how worried should I be about this conversation?’’
“Uh, about Leo?”
Leo? That was new, maybe maybe another kid in robotics? I hadn’t met any new friends of Xander’s in awhile. It was hard to keep up with Xander because it was like something new was happening around him every five seconds. I couldn't really blame him for it, especially since we hadn’t had an actual conversation in what felt like months. I had been busy travelling the world with Jameson over the summer, and finally I felt ready to go back to school after everything that had happened in the past year.
Thinking of last year always brings me to thoughts of Toby, and I really don’t have time for that kind of headspace tonight. The entire Hawthrone family was meeting for dinner tonight at the house, and I needed to be ready for anything.
Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I ask“Who’s Leo?”
“Oh right, you haven’t met the new kids.”
New kids? We haven’t had a new kid at Heights Country Day School since David, and he barely lasted a week, got driven out by Thea. It kind of was a shame that he left because he seemed nice enough, but from the second Thea saw him, it was like she was out for blood. I didn’t really get it though because Thea hadn't even talked to him. I did have a feeling though, when I saw them, that they had met before. There were still so many things that happened before I arrived at Hawthrone house, that I had to learn about. But, I had my own things to worry about, and I couldn’t waste any time thinking about David, even if he was important to Thea’s past.
“Yeah,” he continued, “It was super weird, we hadn’t had any new kids in weeks, then suddenly we got like twenty new kids in like two weeks.”
Twenty! Now that was weird, just as I was about to ask more about these, “new kids,” another Hawthrone strolled in, this one in a much less exciting manner than the first, but still making my heart race. Even after knowing him for years, my heart still does that fluttering in my chest when he enters a room, it was very uncontrollable, but I was used to the feeling by now, and I kind of liked it.
“Heiress.”
Just one word, but still I felt my shoulders relax. Jameson could always do that to me, slow down my emotions, just by speaking.
“Hawthrone, fancy seeing you here,” I said still facing Xander. My voice comes out calm, but my insides feel like they are being twisted up. Of course, we were together all summer, but I hadn’t seen Jameson in almost a week, and it’s safe to say that I missed his calming presence by my side as we traveled.
“Im afraid I can’t say the same, Avery, I’ve been waiting for the past six days and five hours we were apart to see you, and I’m very glad I waited,” Jameson said as his eyes traveled down my navy blue dress that Alisa had chosen for tonight's dinner. The invitation hadn't said anything about formal wear, but knowing that the entire Hawthrne family would be there, Alisa had picked a dress, and for once I was grateful for her, “don’t say a word about wearing a dress look,” that she gave me as she placed the dress on my bed. Because both Hawthorne brothers were wearing perfectly-tailered, matching suits, and I assumed the other two brothers would be wearing the same thing.
I really couldn't have stopped myself if I had wanted to, so I turned to see him, but instead of seeing the usual humor in his eyes, all I saw was truth written on his face.