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Alexander Pierce-Beales

July 15, 2020 4:24 PM

Home. by Alexander Pierce-Beales

Winter passed by Alexander's window and it was the first year he didn't feel like the world had forgotten about him. Laying on his own bed in his own room decorated to his tastes, he was doing better. So far, he'd spent most of winter break trying to deescalate himself and to soak in the feeling of belonging. It was clear that he did belong, even if sometimes he felt like he didn't, and he enjoyed spending time with Mab and even with Bel. Play wasn't something that he'd had a lot of growing up and it was nice to be able to share it now with people who seemed to get what that felt like.

Boston was different than Seattle but not so different that it felt like a new world the way Sonora had. Alexander was eager to see magic cities and structures now that he had a magical adult to go see them with, but for now, he was comfortable just relaxing. It was morning still, but only just. He'd woken up, showered, dressed, and then returned to bed, determined to sleep a little longer before breakfast. As it turned out, a little longer had become a lot longer, and it was nearing 11:30am when the sound of something clattering and scrabbling against his window pulled him from the grey area between sleep and awake that he'd been occupying. He opened his eyes to find an owl with a package.

Confused and assuming the owl had come to the wrong window, he let it in and was more surprised when the package was left right in front of him. The owl insisted on a few pets and Alexander scrambled to find something he could give it as a treat. Finding nothing, he reached instead for the owl itself and gave it whatever petting or scratching it wanted, apologizing for not having anything to sustain it on its trip back to wherever the heck owls went when they weren't delivering mail to magic people.

When the bird left, Alexander stared at the package on his bed. It was wrapped in simple, weather-proof material, and looked to have come a long way. Of course, there was a reason Amazon Prime didn't deliver everything by drone, and in winter weather, most packages looked like they'd come a long way by the time they arrived. However, his own name was distinctly written on the front, and he only hesitated another moment before carefully opening it up.

He wondered whether he should call for Mab or Bel - if they hadn't already heard the owl slamming into the window that was - since Bel seemed like a generally dangerous person who may have people wanting to send dangerous things to children living with her, but something stopped him. For one, he wasn't sure whether anyone who would do something like that even knew of his being there enough to use his name, and for two, it seemed like it was written more kindly than that. Wrapped with more care.

A card and a dark green jersey fell into Alexander's lap. At first, he assumed it was a Seahawks jersey, albeit in one of their less common greens. However, it was not quite the same as a football shirt, especially with an image of two small, crossed broomsticks under the number, where his own name was at the top. He could tell it was a low-quality thing, but it seemed significant somehow. Also, it said "Alexander" and not "Mason," which was weird for a jersey as far as he knew from muggle sports.

He grabbed the card, looking for a moment at the way his name was written on the front in looping, kind letters, and then opened it. It was vaguely familiar handwriting and he knew immediately why when he checked the signature at the bottom. There had been one other time that Claire Randall, maiden name Mason, had written back to him, and it hadn't been anything like this. Still, those letters were distinct enough to catch his eye.

Alexander, I'm not sure what it is about you and me, but I feel as though we are lifetimes apart. That is, to be fair, absolutely my fault. I can't apologise for bringing you into this world, I'm just so sorry about the way I did it. I hope this Christmas finds you happy and I hope you don't mind the gift. Merry Christmas. Claire.

When he left his room, it was because he was hungry. But it was also maybe a little bit because he found suddenly that he was that much more grateful for the home that he had here and the people who had chosen to love him. He sat down for breakfast in a Quidditch jersey with his name on it.

22 Alexander Pierce-Beales Home. 1475 1 5

Bel Pierce

July 16, 2020 6:32 PM

That's new by Bel Pierce

Bel was still getting used to having the two pre-teens around again. She'd been a foster mother for about a year and a half now, but when they were off at school, the only reminders she had that she even had children were the names on the two closed doors and the extra stools at the breakfast bar. (Actually the stools had always been there, but now they had specific people that belonged to them, that she noticed were missing when their stools were empty.) Sometimes she'd get an owl from one or the other of them, but none of them were particularly inclined toward constant correspondence, so that was more of a weekly thing, if that.

Most days during the school term, she was on her own, exactly as she had been before she took in either of them.

Now, during midterm, was an entirely different story. Of all parts of the year, she thought she like midterm the least.

The school time was quiet and she could do her own thing, get her fill of me-time, and work late when she needed to (which was, well, most days, really) without feeling guilty. She could go out until all hours on nights when she didn't have to work the next day, or watch a movie at 3am if she wanted to and yell at the TV without worrying that she might wake up somebody.

Summer was good, too. During summer they could make plans and do things. Four was home from school, too, and she could send them over there when she had to work. Granted, they were likely getting old enough to look after themselves for 8-10 hour stretches, probably, but with Mab's background, it was probably best to leave them supervised, at least for now. When she wasn't working - and she like to save most of her personal time for the summer - they could take day trips, or just have fun rollerblading or training or throwing frisbees in a park, and just relax and be something like a family together.

Midterm was just plan madness. It was two weeks of total insanity. There were parties - a Christmas party with the family, a New Years Party with the McLeods (she still was undecided if she was talking her twelve year olds this time), a big Holiday bash at work that she could bring her family to (she thought she would bring them to that), Christmas shopping, less formal visits with Amelia and the Derries that weren't the big party at Christmas, trying to squeeze in a few fun activities for just them (yesterday it had been ice skating), all while still working because while she wasn't a rookie anymore, neither did she have enough seniority to just take two full weeks off during the holiday season, though she did use every bit of comp time she'd been allowed to accumulate during the fall.

Today was a Saturday, and a normal day off on her rotation, so she was enjoying a relatively quiet morning without much pressing on her to get done. Mab had come out of her room around 9, and they'd had bagels together before playing a bit of Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games which had naturally segued into heading over to the training room to see how well they could do ping pong in person. Bel had transfigured them a table and some paddles, and she actually had some real ping pong balls already as faux snitches for her indoor Seeker practices, and that had gone rather terribly. And also hilariously.

She didn't know why she'd never thought she'd wanted a 12 year old before.

They had just headed out, stomachs grumbly for lunch after a pretty small breakfast hours earlier, when Bel saw the door to Alexander's room finally open. He was dressed, so she refrained from calling him a sleepyhead - he could have been drawing or reading quietly in there all this time, and if he'd already eaten breakfast and gone back into his room before she'd woken at 8:30, she didn't want the teasing turned back on her.

Though as he joined them, she noticed what it was he was wearing, and she did not remember buying that for him. She raised an eyebrow. It looked like a muggle sports jersey except, were those crossed brooms on it? "Is that what happens when Quidditch robes have an torrid love affair with a football jersey?" she joked lightly as she began opening cupboards and taking down three plates. "What'll be? Lunch, brunch, or breakfast? Mab and I are craving some PBJs."

Mab grinned at her brother. "Comfort food, after we both proved neither of us can hit a real life ping pong ball to save our lives."

Bel grunted. "I must have transfigured the table wrong. Or maybe the paddles. Probably both. That was just ugly."

1 Bel Pierce That's new 0 Bel Pierce 0 5

Alexander Pierce-Beales

July 16, 2020 9:07 PM

It is, isn't it? by Alexander Pierce-Beales

"PB&J sounds great," Alexander said, smiling as close to a grin as he ever really got. It was nice to be able to eat PB&Js and it was nice that someone else would make one for him. Of course that wasn't to say he shouldn't-- "Do you want my help?" he offered.

His smile showed his fondness for his family when Mab explained the reason they were craving the sandwiches and Bel tried to explain the reason for the reason. "I'm sorry to have missed that," he chuckled. That was the weird thing about being here, too: there was always something to miss but it never felt like missing out. Alexander didn't at all feel like he'd missed his opportunity to play Quidditch with his sister or Bel, just that he'd missed an opportunity to do so. There would be others, and there would be time to hang out with just Mab and there would be time to hang out with just Bel.

He tugged at his shirt a little, self-conscious for wearing it and wondering suddenly if it was insensitive. Mab would have given anything to hear from her biological mother. "It came in the mail for me," he explained. "And yes, I think that's absolutely what it is," he added, smiling wryly at Bel's question about the horrific hybrid that it was. "It's from. . . . Claire. Actually. Claire Randall."

Alexander had passed on all the information he had about his biological parents, desperate to find some way to make sense of it all. Claire had only written to him once before and he was hardly inclined to refer to her by anything other than her first name anyway, but the fact that they didn't even have matching last names made it all the more so. She'd given him her maiden name, trying to separate him from the life she'd begun with her husband. It wasn't fair and Alexander wasn't about to let that go. But still, she'd sent a Christmas gift. The only Christmas gift he'd ever received from biological family.

His voice was small when he continued. "It feels weird, but I think it feels sort of nice," he admitted. Then, with a little more confidence and a little bit of a blush, he smiled some at Bel and Mab, especially the latter. "And it makes me grateful for a real family here."

22 Alexander Pierce-Beales It is, isn't it? 1475 0 5