Moving Pains

Posted on Mon Oct 7th, 2019 @ 12:59am by Lieutenant Elara Evander

Mission: Preludes
Location: Evander Family Quarters, USS Mazerine
Timeline: 2367, 0645 Hours

"Elara, you have to get out of bed."

But she didn't want to move. She'd been lectured for about a week now about how she was being unreasonable and how she wasn't going to solve anything with her moping. Normally her mother got to the point where she'd threaten not letting her talk to Jacob when there was a call scheduled and that was enough to get her to move. Her dad had seemed like the most irritated with her behavior, well...maybe second to Leo. Her mother had seemed like the most understanding one, but she couldn't stop missing Jacob. If her dad came back by and she was still in bed, she'd probably really hear about it...she knew that they were all getting ready for their shifts but she just didn't want to go.

Even Pippin missed Jacob.

Her mother came in, moved aside the patterned piece of fabric (that had been hung to make Elara's bed area feel more like a fort), and sat on the edge of her bed, "Little Love, you have to get up for school." She stroked her hair as she stared down at her with her dark eyes, her voice gentle and full of understanding as she spoke. "I know you miss Jacob, but you'll get to talk to him soon. You know this." She paused for a moment and sighed. "It won't be forever, even though perhaps right now it feels like that."

"It's already been forever," Elara told her. "And a day!"

Gwendolyn smiled at that. "What does Pippin say?"

Pippin had been her constant companion since leaving Starbase 211. Elara had hidden him away in her bag when she wasn't supposed to have him with her and it had nearly gotten her into trouble a couple of times (Leo usually being the one trying to get her into trouble). In her new room, Pippin sat on a shelf next to her bed along with a few other things her mom had insisted be there...and also her pegasus. Her mom had really put a lot of effort into her small room, even though Elara hadn't asked for it. Beside Pippin, there was a miniature lavender hybrid in a geometric terrarium, a black tourmaline sphere (her mother insisted it was for empathic protection), a set of pictures of her and Jacob from different ages, her pegasus, and then a set of jars that lit up in the dark and looked like tiny mermaids were inside. "Pippin says that I should be allowed to miss school and that I--we should get to talk to Jacob this morning," Elara told her quite seriously.

"Aren't you excited to go and see that new friend at school?"

Elara stared at her, her fingers running around her bare wrist. She so missed her bracelet that she'd given Jacob, but she had Pippin...still, she hadn't had the bracelet too long. "Just because I said that she said she liked my hair doesn't mean she's my friend," Elara told her mother. She wondered if her mother wanted her to make friends there in hopes that she'd forget about Jacob, which would never happen. "You don't let me take Pippin with me--"

"Elara Genevieve Evander, I know you've taken Pippin with you everywhere since we've come here," her mother said, her voice a bit stern now. "I know you're upset. I understand that. I had friends that got left behind, people that I cared for very much...I left behind my labs and my staff...and I left behind plants that couldn't be brought with us." She paused for a moment. "But you have to learn to adapt to change Little Love."

"I can adapt to anything," Elara told her. "Except not having Jacob."

Sighing, Gwendolyn stood up and moved to the closet. "You're quite dramatic for a nine year old," she said before pulling out an outfit and tossing it at her daughter. "I'm not sure I'm going to survive you being a love crazed teenager."

Crinkling her nose, Elara wondered why her mom would bring up such a thing. If teenagers were basically Leo, then she never wanted to be one. Of course the only thing that Elara thought her brother really loved where tools and projects. "Maybe I can just be this age."

Gwendolyn let out a short laugh. "If only, I think I've hoped that you'd stop growing since you were born...and yet you still grow."

She knew that she couldn't actually get away with being in bed all day and moping around. Everyone would eventually get mad at her and then she wouldn't get to talk to Jacob. She wanted to talk to him. Elara grumbled and finally sat up in bed and turned towards where Pippin was sitting. "Pippin, what adventure should we go on today?" Elara was quiet, like she was listening for Pippin's response but really she was listening for her mom to leave the room (which she did). "I wish we could go on an adventure to go back to Starbase 211 and be with Jacob. I don't understand why no one seems to understand how we need to be together. He's our Jacob."

Elara sat there for another moment before finally got up and went to get ready. She didn't take long getting changed and her mom barged back in and messed with her curls until they were up into two buns on top of her head (apparently trying a new style was good, while Elara just thought it was annoying because pins to hold them in place bothered her head), she slipped on her shoes before finally grabbing her bag, and stowed Pippin inside. She headed out for breakfast and hoped that Leo wouldn't start any problems for her before she could get out the door to school.

It would be another day, another day she hoped she'd get to talk to Jacob.