fandomhigh | Fandom Library, Wednesday, September 11th

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Fandom Library, Wednesday, September 11th

The library was up to nothing??? weird today??? Arden kept expecting something, but apparently it just...wasn't? No gremlins, no creepy whispers, no books doing anything other than...sitting there, unmoving, the way books were supposed to.

She didn't trust this even a little bit, but it didn't matter how often she tried to surprise check up anything, it just stayed...normal.

This was weird and she didn't like it. She had her eye on you, library.

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“I already dumped that out,” Kamala said with a smirk. “Are you sure you don’t want me to say something to him? I think Ammi has been dropping hints but he’s pretty clueless sometimes.”

"Absolutely not," Arden said. "I would rather die. I would rather drink the sweet tea!"

Basically the same thing.

"His feelings would be so hurt!"

"You're so going to regret that someday," Kamala said putting the box which advertised "Milk Toffee's" on the counter.

Inside she would find some spiced tea, barfi (which tastes better than it sounds) and some gulab jamun. Additionally there was a colorful dupatta. Along with a note:

Arden,

I hope you are doing well on the island! Kamala's texts tell me that everyone is fine and doing well but as usual it lacks the details a mother truly needs to know. Regardless please enjoy some of the treats, they are some of Kamala's favorites. Also her Nani recently send some of her old belongings to us and decided to pass one of them along to you as a small gift. The dupatta belonged to Kamala's Nani Amma which she owned before her family took them to Pakistan during the Partition. We thought it fitting for such a fine young woman such as yourself.

Enjoy the treats & sweet tea!
-Muneeba Khan

Edited 2024-09-11 12:31 (UTC)

"Oh!" Arden said, pulling out the colorful fabric and holding it up to the light. "Oh, Kams, I can't--surely this can't be for me! There's gotta be some mistake, this is a family heirloom, it's--" Her voice cracked a bit and all her words fell out through it, and she had to concentrate on blinking very rapidly instead.

"There's no mistake," Kamala said shaking her head but smiling at Arden's reaction. "My Nani has been hoarding this stuff for years and has been shipping it over to my mom a lot recently. Pretty sure my Ammi just wanted to give it to someone who would appreciate it."

Kamala held up her arm and pointed to the bangle she is always wearing. "My whole becoming a superhero came from a box of jewelry my Nani sent two years ago and would have sat in our attic if I hadn't found it. After that Ammi likes to find a good home for these things. I think she sent an old watch of my grandfather's to Cal and some other Dupattas to Lydia and Eleanor."

"I don't know if that means she is trying for all of us to become superheroes or if she's just getting things out of the house so you don't find anything else," Arden said with a slightly watery smile. She quickly rubbed at her face, you know, no reason. "But if she sent one to everybody..."

Then Arden felt a lot better about accepting, like she wasn't taking something that shouldn't belong to her.

"I should write her a thank you note," she murmured. "And pictures of you drinking smoothies."

"Oh no, no pictures," Kamala said shaking her head. "If Abbu sees pictures of me drinking smoothies then he'll want pictures of us drinking sweet tea. That's not happening. But a thank you note will probably send Ammi over the moon. And then I'll get a text about how I should be more like you and blah blah blee."

She reached out to put her hand on Arden's arm. "I'm pretty sure my mom fussed over which person got which item. Trust me, everything she does is a long and thorough process. She probably spent an hour looking for the right scarf for you."

"Well, she's wrong, you shouldn't be more like me," Arden said. "You're strong and brave and fearless in so many ways that I'm not...I wanna be more like you, honestly." She leaned over and gave Kamala a hug. "I'm a suck up to parents for fucked up defense mechanism reasons that you never had to develop and that's good, actually."

She started to drape the dupatta over her shoulders. "Wanna show me how to wear this?"

It took a moment for Kamala to recover from the hug and the feelings of this moment. She hugged Arden tightly before they pulled back. "Oh, stop it. You're just as brave if not more than me. I don't know if I could ever be as independent as you are. You've shown me I can stand on my own two feet and trust me, that's a great gift."

She immediately started fussing with the draping of it over Arden. "There's over a dozen ways you could wear it," she said trying not to focus on the joy she felt just now. "Really there's not a wrong way as long as you don't trip over it. Over the shoulder, drape it, wear it as a cowl... Really just wear it how you feel comfortable."

"And I can wear it anytime, right?" she checked. "It's not for fancy, special occasions? Because, honestly, I think this would look really cool over a pair of skinny jeans and a shirt." She bet the internet would have a bunch of ways to style one over Western dress.

"Of course, I wear mine whenever," Kamala said with a shrug. "Though usually my nerd t-shirts come first in my fashion choices. And next time you wear it we'll send that picture to my mom and she'll be thrilled."

"We'll have to get a picture of all of us, too. So she can frame it and put it up on a wall somewhere," Arden laughed. "Also, so like...how are you? Smoothies? What happened? When did that start? Are you sure you're feeling okay?"

"I'm fine," Kamala said leaning on the counter with a sigh and her nose wrinkling a bit. "I'm just trying to be better. So I'm cutting back on my daily intake of red dye #5 for something naturally green from the oh-so-tasty raw spinach and kale they put in the smoothies."

Along with pineapple and banana but still... she swore she could taste the color green.

"Are there no other smoothies they have?" Arden asked. "Ones without spinach or kale? Just fruit ones, maybe?" She nudged her. "Do you want a smoothie buddy, so you're not suffering alone?"

Maybe she'd volunteer Cal.

"And you just cut back, right? Not cut off entirely?"

"Well, there are other smoothies but since it has kale I think it's just healthier? So, yeah. Trying to cut back and have more healthier thing going on," Kamala said now just full out lying on the desk now in smoothie sadness. "But I'm down to one Squishy a day. But if you want to be my smoothie buddy, I'm okay with that."

Don't put Cal on the green smoothie train! Share Kamala's pain!

Okay but this way, Kamala could have a smoothie buddy and it wouldn't have to be Arden! Besides, Cal was a soldier! Healthy things were important to him or something!

"Bruno's never gonna believe this," she said, shaking her head. "He's gonna think we replaced you with a smoothie-drinking pod person."

"No doubt he'll have blood tests for me to do just so I can earn his trust back," Kamala said now with a melodramatic pose as the situation humorously demanded it. "Our friendship will be on the rocks all because I drank a green smoothie."

Her melodrama only lasted two seconds longer before she dissolved into laughter.

A much better reason for being on the rocks than because he couldn't handle her romantic choices!

Arden laughed along with her. "Dear Bruno, please advise..." she giggled. "And then he--oh! Do you know when he's gonna have the, uh. Results? Of his tests?"

"You know I asked him about that last week? And he gave some really long answer that really didn't make sense to me. So I told him to start again and all he said was 'I found something and I need another week'," Kamala said now pursing her lips in thought. "Which I would say is weird but getting him out of nerd to normal mode is an effort for him. If you want I can get a call set up for Friday. Would that work for you?"

"I'm heading to California with Gray sometime Friday, but if it's in the morning, it'll probably be fine," Arden said. "He's taking me to a club!"

A sex club, but Arden was still blissfully unaware of that very pertinent detail.

Nothing will go wrong with that at all. Nope. Everything will be just fine!

"Oh, well then maybe I'll have him call us next week so you can have fun," Kamala said cheerfully. "It'll give him a few more days to nerd out the details."

Totally! Zero possible things!

"Does that mean I can tap you for opinions on dresses still?" Arden asked.

“When would I ever say no to that?” Kamala said now just hoisting herself up on the counter and letting her feet dangle.

Look the librarian deals with devils and demons. A girl sitting on the desk was no big deal.

“Show me your options.”

"Well, I haven't had a chance to try either of them on, but..." She pulled out her phone and paged over to the store where she'd bought them. Then hesitated. "Okay, so, these are a little...um, a lot, I guess. But it matches what Gray said the vibe was?"

And then after that warning, she showed Kamala the daring first one, the sparkly , or the more 'conservative' third, in case she chickened out on both of the first two.

“Okay, let’s see,” Kamala said looking over the options and her eyes almost popping out of her head seeing the first one. “Damn girl! Okay, the black number is okay but I don’t think it’s you. The first one is incredible? But I kind of like the sparkly one. All the gold? Reminds me of when your eyes do that thing.”

Fandom Library, Wednesday, September 11th

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