Half Wit

Emelie sighed and woke up as the sun reached her eyes. She hated the fact that she had forgotten to close the blinds before she went to bed as she sat up on her bed and rubbed her tired eyes. Then her mind registered that her father had left the night before for at least 6 months of tour. Not that it bothered her, she was rather used to the fact that her father was absent a lot during her life, perhaps she could join him later on the tour when the vacation started.

She dragged herself out of bed and ran a hand through her dreads, making sure they wouldn't be hanging in front of her eyes during the day. She grabbed one of the pins on her nightstand, a black one with small glitters. She smiled a little as she was remembered that her father had bought it for her on tour. Emelie sighed and shrugged as she looked at herself after a long shower and smiled a little to herself before she started to search her combat boots.

Downstairs, she heard her mother busy in the kitchen before the bell rang. Emelie rolled her eyes at the bell and grabbed her bag, propping in the books she needed for the day in it in a hurry, not forgetting her reading material before she ran down the stairs, trying not to fall over her steps in her hurry.

“Emelie! Oh, there you are. Lyra is waiting for you in the hall for you,” Adrienne informed her, looking at her daughter and sighing when she saw her hair.

“Come on, let's get your hair in some decent bun before you leave.” She chuckled, winking at her daughter. Adrienne took the pin out of her daughters hair and grabbed the loose dreads, putting them together a little so a few of them would fall over her shoulders and some of her curly hair would fall in front of her eyes, framing her round face perfectly.

“There you go, all perfect and pretty,” Adrienne smiled as she looked at her daughter. Emelie smiled a little and placed her books on the table for a moment to hug her mother. “You have everything?” Adrienne asked as Emelie pulled out of the hug and grabbed a piece of toast that was on a plate on the counter. Her daughter thought about it for a second and nodded before she grabbed her books and ran out of the kitchen, half-waving a goodbye at her mother.

Adrienne shook her head at her daughter and walked upstairs to wake up Joey and Jakob, who were probably still sleeping peacefully in their beds. Briefly, she wondered how Jakob would react to the fact that his father wasn't coming home for the next 6 months and that he might see him on the television from time to time. The chattering of Emelie and Lyra was still slightly heard from the hallway, causing a smile to creep up her lips.

“Oh there you are, took you some time,” Lyra rolled her eyes, her arms were crossed in front of her chest and she was tapping her foot impatiently on the floor as she waited for Emelie.

“Is that a new Adeline t-shirt?” her friend asked when she saw an unfamiliar t-shirt gracing Emelie's curves. Emelie sighed and nodded. Even though her father and mother ran Adeline Street, which caused some pieces of the clothing line mysteriously appear in Emelie's closet, the girl didn't really like wearing the clothes. Not because they weren't pretty, on the contrary, Emelie loved the designs her mother and father came up with for the clothes but its just the fact that the clothes were created by her parents and that was the annoying part.

“Yeah, felt like wearing it, just for the design alone I would wear this one more than once,” Emelie said with a small smile as the two girls walked down the porch and towards their school. Lyra nodded and looked at the shirt quickly. It was a newer design, not yet seen in the on line store but hopefully it would come soon.

“So, they're on tour right now aren't they?” Lyra asked as she noticed the slightly sad expression playing on Emelie's features.

“Yeah, tonight is the record release party. I still don't get why he didn't allow me to come,” Emelie rolled her eyes, pouting a little. She always loved the record release parties, the energy was still fresh in the band and being part of a group that heard the new songs for the first time live was always a nice feeling.

“So, thought up of any designs for the tattoo already?” Lyra asked, changing the subject to something else than the fact that Billie Joe wouldn't be home for the next few months and that placed a strain on Emelie.

“Probably something that looks a lot like the design on my mothers arm. I really like that one,” Emelie shrugged, “perhaps a little smaller so the text can fit in it nicely. I'll show you a picture of it later on alright? We have the first hour informatics anyway,” Emelie told Lyra smiling.

The two girls walked in the school, ignoring some of the odd glances coming from the other students. They were used to it already, the fact that everyone knew who Emelie's parents were and so thought that she was just like them (which she was but still). Emelie once heard a rumor that some of the students were afraid she would beat them up if they did something that could damage the environment.

On the other hand, the younger students were rather amazed by Emelie and would often stare at her for longer than a few minutes, wondering if Billie Joe would suddenly appear next to her or any one else related to her or Green Day. Slowly, both Emelie and Lyra walked towards the computer room, Andrea had a different time table than the two girls but they accepted the little fact that they only had a handful of lessons together.

Emelie sighed and started her computer, not understanding how the computers could be so out-dated in this generation. Not that they were still working on the old software, but the fact that they were so incredible slow could anger her from time to time.

After a half hour of listening to the teacher explaining the things they already knew, they were left to work on the exercises. However, everyone knew that the teacher didn't even dare to pay attention and just spend most of the time on the Internet, showing each other what they found on various sites like My Space or Buzznet.

“I still think this is strange. Searching pictures on the Internet of my own mother,” Emelie said dry. Lyra chuckled and patted Emelie's back as she was also searching a good picture of Adrienne Armstrong.

“Even if its only to show you a reference for my tattoo design!” Emelie rolled her eyes and shook her head at another picture of her mother, too bad it was the wrong arm being visible.

“You don't have too search too you know? I think I can handle this on my own,” Lyra said with a smile on her face. Emelie sighed in relief and nodded, closing off the search engine results and deciding to check her emails, knowing that there was a small chance that her father had already send her one. Knowing him and the fact that he's easily bored on a plane while Mike and Tré were sleeping peacefully.

She sighed and shook her head when she saw that there wasn't any email from her father yet, either he had forgotten to take his laptop on the plane with him or he had fallen asleep. Either way, it didn't really disappoint her since reading it would only make her miss him even more.

“What do you think of the text 'The stiller I stand, the faster I run'?” Emelie asked, looking at her desktop picture and smiling as it was one of Rise Against, her current favorite band. Then again, her favorite bands changed from time to time and who knows, maybe next week another bands name would be present on her desktop.

“Nice, where did you find it?” Lyra asked, still searching for a good picture of Adrienne's arm to see the design in detail.

“Just thought of it, I think I read it in a comic book one time, don't remember which one though, I read so many of them,” Emelie shrugged, opening a new document and deciding it would be a good thing to start typing random things that came up in her mind. Who knows, perhaps those random things would end up as a part of the lyrics she wrote occasionally.

“Well I like it,” Lyra said, keeping her eyes on the screen as she squinted her eyes together when some of the pictures turned out to be rather blurry.

“Aha! Found a good one!” Lyra said with a smile, pointing at the screen where there was a full-sized picture of Adrienne Armstrong with a good sight on the tattoo design, “Doesn't look to hard, I'll change some of the things to make it more unique!” she nodded, looking at the design and smiling brightly, clearly enjoying the fact that she had a good challenge on her hands.

“Well aren't you a ray of sunshine now,” Emelie smirked, seeing how thinking about the design made Lyra light up as a light bulb. A huge smile was plastered on her lips and her eyes light up at the very idea of drawing something that might be permanently carved in someones skin with ink.

“Are you kidding me. This is great!” Lyra said, “when you get all famous and stuff like your dad you can talk about the tattoo and tell everyone that your crazy friend from high school drew the design!” she joked. Emelie rolled her eyes and shook her head, knowing that something like that would've come out of her mouth sooner of later.

Whenever they had a free period, just like they had now, Lyra and Emelie went towards the garden part of the school. Not a lot of students spend time in the gardens, no one knew why, it wasn't like it was ridden by pesticides or anything. Emelie smiled as she saw Andrea sitting on their usual bench, headphones securely placed over her ears as she moved her head with the music playing on a volume that shocked Emelie. Seeing that two of her friends had arrived at the bench, Andrea put down the volume and looked at Lyra and Emelie in front of her.

“Oh god, what did you do? She's all smiles now!” Andrea said, a horrified expression on her face as she saw the smile plastered on Lyra's lips.

“Great, now she'll never stop doing that.” Andrea pointed at the fact that Lyra sat down right in front of her and placed her head in her hands, looking dreamy at the girl in front of her with the smile still plastered on her lips.

Emelie chuckled and shook her head, sitting down next to Lyra and taking out her book, planning on reading a little bit more. Andrea sighed and shook her head at her friends but Emelie chose to ignore it while Lyra chose to pick Andrea's napkin and started to draw on it with one of the pens she hid in her pockets.

“Seeing that she is drawing something that looks a lot like your mothers tattoo. I'm guessing she agreed with your father to let you have another part of your skin inked,” Andrea said, her eyes fixated on the napkin on which Lyra was currently drawing something that had only minor resemblance points to the original tattoo found on Adrienne's arm.

*

“Did you design your own tattoo or did someone draw it for you?” Emelie asked as she grabbed a water bottle out of the fridge and faced her mother who looked up from the magazine she was reading at the kitchen table.

“I drew it myself actually,” Adrienne smiled, “And I heard Lyra is drawing yours,” she added, looking at her daughter as Emelie nodded and took a sip from her water, looking in the distance and light years away from the actual conversation.

“I might change the text though,” Emelie said after a few minutes of silence between the two. Adrienne's worry fell of her face as her daughter had been standing still for the past two minutes.

“To what sweetheart?” Adrienne asked, smiling a little as curiosity took over her mind for the moment.

“The stiller I stand, the faster I run,” Emelie muttered, taking another sip from her water before she shot a small smile at her mother and sat down at the kitchen table. Adrienne reached out and placed her hand on Emelie's shoulder, squeezing it slightly and winking at her.

“Whatever you pick out. I'm fine with it. As long as it means something to you,” Adrienne assured her daughter before she stood up and gave Emelie a kiss on the top of her head and left the kitchen. Emelie groaned to herself and sighed before she laid her head down on her arms and tried to find out of she could fall asleep at the table.

“Emelie?” A young voice reached her ears and a small hand pulled at her shirt. Emelie looked up the table and smiled at Jakob looking innocent at her. Emelie showed him a tired smile back and turned so she could face him better.

“Where is dad?” Jakob asked, looking half-sad and a bit worried about the whereabouts of his father.

“Dad won't be coming home for a few months now Jakob. He's on vacation with uncle Tré and uncle Mike!” Emelie explained to him just like Adrienne had whenever she had asked it when she was younger. Jakob's face fell as sighed and let his head hang low.

“Hey there,” Emelie said with a comforting tone, putting her hand under his chin to force him to look at her, “He'll come back. He's just busy with the thing he does best,”

“Traveling for months at a time and forgetting about us?” Jakob asked sad, not looking Emelie straight in her eyes. Emelie looked a little sad and shook her head at her youngest brother.

“No, making thousands of boys and girls happy with making music. And you should never forget that he's always thinking of us. You want to know why? Because he loves us!” she told him, winking at him before she pulled him in a hug. Jakob sniffed a little and nodded as he buried his head in her shoulder.

“I'd hate to interrupt this little brother-sister moment, but you're in the way!” Joey's voice disturbed them. The middle child was standing just in front of Emelie and Jakob who were sitting on the floor in a tight hug. Emelie looked at Joey and scowled, mentally telling him that this was a bad time to disturb them.

“Don't try to kill me with your ice queen glare Em, you've been trying for the past 13 years, if it didn't work then it won't work now,” Joey said with a smirk. For the past few years, he had been trying to get back at Emelie as much as possible, causing some people who didn't know them all to personal to think that they hated each others guts. Most of the time that would end up as Joey being seen as a jerk but both of them knew that they were just joking around.

Emelie rolled her eyes and ignored him before she faced Jakob again, she whispered something in his ear that caused him to look up, some small tears were still visible in his small eyes but a tiny smile was starting to appear on his lips as he looked at Emelie with some hope.

“Now go off and play okay?” Emelie said, smiling and standing up, ruffling Jakob's hair in affection before she moved in front of Joey and looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Is it true that dad allowed you to get another tattoo?” Joey asked as he wondered if the rumors that were floating around the school were true, “And that you'll pick something really stupid and ugly?”

“For goodness sake. Yes, dad allowed me to get another tattoo and don't believe everything they say about me and my oh-so-secret life alright?” Emelie advised her younger brother before she decided to try and sleep on her bed instead of the kitchen table. For one, it was much more comfortable and two, her brothers wouldn't disturb her then.

Emelie strolled down the hallway and opened her door by leaning against it with her back, sighing as she was tired from school. Not that it was so surprising, the teachers found it necessary to give tests and soon, every day of their journal had another important test notated. The young girl almost fell backwards in her room but managed to turn around and put a foot out before she did. Her eyes widened slightly by the shock before she stood up and jumped up a little as she saw Lyra crawl through the open window in her room.

“What are you doing here?!” Emelie looked at her friend with her mouth half open and her eyes open in shock as Lyra dusted herself of and then looked at her friend with a smile on her face. Her hand reached within her pocket and found the napkin she had been drawing on earlier.

“I finished your design,” Lyra said between breaths as the girl clearly couldn't stop smiling about her drawing. Emelie sighed and knew she should've seen this coming.

“Couldn't you use the front door? You know, like normal people?” Emelie asked as she walked across the room and snapped the napkin out of Lyra's hands to look at the finished work. Her eyes scanned the thick lines on the fragile paper and took in every small detail of the drawing. Influences of her mothers tattoo were slightly visible but yet, Lyra had added a touch of her own imagination and creativity which ended up making the design unique and beautiful.

“I'll take by the fact that you haven't said anything in the past 5 minutes as a good sign,” Lyra said, unsure if she should be saying anything at all. Emelie closed her mouth and opened it again a couple of times, trying to think up of words to say anything back. Lyra moved and laid down on the bed, her feet hanging over the end and just hovering inches above the ground.

Adrienne chose to enter her daughter's room at that moment with a pile of washed clothes, looking a little surprised at Lyra laying down on the bed and her daughter standing there, her eyes fixated on a napkin. Carefully, she placed the clothes in Emelie's closet and closet it, looking at Lyra who lifted her head up slightly and smiled at her before waving and laying back down and then at Emelie who was clearly in her own world.

“She's been like that for the past 7 minutes ma'am, don't know what to do with her!” Lyra said, sitting up and shrugging as she looked sad at her friend. Emelie shook her head out of her thoughts and jumped up at the sight of her mother before blushing and giving the napkin to her.

“Did you draw this?” Adrienne asked Lyra, pointing at the napkin and showing it to Lyra. The young girl smiled and nodded, blushing a little herself as she didn't expect Adrienne to talk about it to her. “I like it,” the older woman nodded before giving it back at Emelie and winking at her before she left the two girls alone in the room.

Lyra watched Adrienne leave the room and close the door silently behind her before she turned her gaze at Emelie with a big smile on her lips. Emelie's face was lighted up with a joyful smile before she pulled up Lyra from the bed by her wrist and pulled her friend in a hug.

*

“Mom? Can I ask for your opinion on something?” Emelie asked, walking down the stairs and looking at her mother who was just taking something out of the fridge, presumably for dinner. Adrienne looked up and smiled at her daughter, placing the vegetables on counter and leaning on it herself before she nodded.

“I was wondering about the text of my tattoo, I have two nice ones but I don't know which one I should pick...” Emelie said, looking at her mother and hoping that she could help her choose.

“I'd say to stick with your first choice,” Adrienne shrugged, “But that's completely up to you, just make sure the text fits with the design,” she added with a smile. Emelie let out a small breath and nodded. The bags under her eyes were clearly visible and showed Adrienne how tired her daughter was. The older woman smiled and took the vegetables from the counter before she started to prepare them, she grabbed them in a bunch and let them fall in the sink that was already filled with water to clean them.

“I think you're right,” Emelie said with a smile, nodding a little, “And if I really want I can always try and convince dad to let me have another tattoo. Perhaps on my other arm,” Emelie smirked, shrugging a little like it was no big deal. Adrienne chuckled and shook her head at her daughter. Both girls knew well enough that Billie Joe could easily be persuaded into Emelie's wishes and Emelie used that whenever she thought it was necessary.

“Don't even think of trying to pull that little stunt young lady. You're only 16, having three tattoo's in total is already too much normally,” Adrienne pointed out “But then again, you are your fathers daughter when it comes to these things.” She muttered after it as she focused on the vegetables instead.

Emelie chuckled and nodded, agreeing with her mother on that little part before she decided to go upstairs and take the change of having some calmness around her to read more in her book.