Okay, here they are. My 100 table little fics I've written. I of course chose Eli and Grace from Once and Again.


Middles

"Get a room!" She was tired of them ignoring their feelings. It was so obvious to the world and they were too stupid to figure it out for themselves. She hated them for it. He was her brother. He was supposed to be loyal to her. He was never supposed to hang out with that girl, Grace Manning. The girl that was thrust into their lives simply because Eli was in trouble that day Grace was stupid and got hurt. Jessie hated always being in the middle. She was in the middle of her parents as they went through their divorce and she's back in the middle again between her brother and their new stepsister.
"A room? We don't need a room. We don't want a room. I don't need a room with him." Grace was flustered and hated the fact Eli could so easily fluster her. "I...I have to go."
"What? Go write again in your journal? Wasn't that your excuse yesterday? And Eli, brilliant Eli, said he was going to write in his journal too. By the way E, when did you get a journal? When did you start to write? Admit you were rattled and said the first thing that came to your mind which made no sense at all. Just stop it! The two of you have got to get whatever this is out of your system or out in the open. Otherwise, I'm going to lose my mind. I hate being in the middle all the time. Literally. Look at us. I'm sitting here on the couch between the two of you yet again, with your flirting and touching. Do you see me here? God, get over yourselves, figure it out, or I'll tell the parents and then there won't be a middle for me to be stuck in." Jessie smacked her brother's arm, stood, glared at Grace and stomped out of the room.. She didn't want to hear the conversation she knew would result because of her outburst. Jessie was finished being stuck in the middle. The middle was not a good place to exist.





Idiots

"What the hell is wrong with her?" He knew what it was but he'd done so well playing dumb for far too many years to stop now. He could pretend he was hung over...or high or anything really, just so he wouldn't have to explain what his sister was talking about.
"Maybe she's just really tired."

~~~Grace B&W
"Tired Grace? Yeah, Jessie's young, in good health so why would she be tired and irritable? Idiot." She's shaking her head and mumbling to herself. ~~~~

"Yeah, tired, that's it. Jess is tired and not making sense."
The two sat in silence a few minutes more when Grace began giggling. Eli tried ignoring her to no avail.
"What's so funny Grace?"
She took a deep breath. "We are."

~~~~Eli B&W
"Yep. Keep asking the stupid questions. Try to keep up the facade. Facade? What sort of idiot is capable of coming up with a word like facade? Someone faking it of course." ~~~~

Grace turned to look at her step-brother and softly spoke. "Is she right? Has she always been in the middle? Is there something for her to be in the middle of every day?"
He could feel her eyes staring a hole through him and wasn't certain he could look her in the eyes ever again. It would be so much easier to play dumb. He always did idiot so well. He sat there in silence, knowing she was staring, knowing he didn't have the courage she did. Being an idiot was so much easier than acting brave.





Days


He successfully avoided Grace and her piercing eyes for three full days and since it was late afternoon he was certain he'd made it through another day without having the discussion he was dreading. The discussion about the two of them he'd dodged with great success. The decision as to whether or not they would ever be an 'us' or if they were able to avoid each other for the rest of their days.
"Eli, can you take Grace to Booklover's? She's going to help her dad and when I spoke to him, Jake said you were working this evening. It would be a big help." Lily looked at him with her best puppy dog eyes and he was done.
"Sure Lily. I can take Grace. Is she ready?"
"Oh hon, I have to run now so could you tell her? Please?" She looked at him again, this time almost batting her eyelashes, and again he knew he was done.
"Sure. Let me get my jacket and I'll let her know."
"Oh, you may want to tell her now so she can be sure to be ready when you are. You're a dear. Thank you E." Lily gave him a quick hug before she walked out the door.
"Yeah, I'm a dear alright." Eli took a deep breath and walked toward the stairs.
"What's wrong with you?"
"Zoe! You scared me. Nothing. I'm just going up to tell Grace she's got to be ready soon because I'm leaving when i get my jacket and find my keys. Why?"
"You look like you're about to throw up. Oh, so Jessie is going to be here with me? Cool." He smiled at her knowing she had it easy for now but he was certain it would be a matter of days before her world was as complicated as everyone else in the house.
He walked up the stairs and slowly crept to Grace's door. It felt like it took three days just to walk mere feet. His hand weighed thirty pounds as he raised it to knock on her door. He took a deep breath and knocked.
"Grace? Are you in there?"
"Of course I am, it's my room." She opened the door. They stared at one another realizing it was the first time in those three and a half days that they'd lay eyes on one another. Three long days. Three days full of unanswered questions flying through their minds a million miles an hour. Three days of pure hell.





Okay, so there's the first three I wrote. In my next post you'll see the three I wrote while sitting at the table beside the indoor pool at my son's last baseball tournament of the season. A very loud indoor pool and then I finished them in the lobby that night. Took about an hour for all three, I haven't looked at them since so I dunno what they might be like. LOL *waves*