Round 3: Fish

Aurelia Fish is an Elder. Her grandson Dmitri Fish is a Teen, and her granddaughter Dzika Fish is a Child.

* * *

After meeting Autumn Brennan, Dzika started focusing on her art with a new fervor. Her goal in life was now to become a painter just like Autumn.

Aurelia wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Dzika was a prodigy when it came to the visual arts, she was sure, even if she hadn’t taken to music quite as well. But painting wasn’t a very stable career path. She wanted to make sure her grandchildren both had solid futures, especially now that their parents were no longer around to support them. She tried to encourage Dzika, but also started dropping hints about other careers that she could think about working towards.

Dmitri was finally starting to do better in school. His friendship with Liss, though, was suffering. He was trying not to let her relationship with Ellis get to him, but he couldn’t help the way he felt about her. It wasn’t something he could just flip off like a switch, even though he might like to. And between her dates with Ellis and her new friendship with Autumn, Dmitri didn’t get to see her nearly as often anymore. More and more, he was afraid that they might be growing apart – or rather, that she might be growing away from him, leaving him behind.

And then, one night on the porch, she started acting… strange. Almost like she was flirting with him. He didn’t know what to make of it, or how he should respond.

He knew he shouldn’t. He knew about Ellis, and he had promised himself he was going to be done thinking of Liss that way. But before he could talk himself out of it, he leaned over and kissed her.

She didn’t pull away.

It was a very long time before he finally went back inside.

That night, he stayed up all night turning the events of the evening around and around in his mind. One part of him was feeling nothing but happiness at the fact that he had finally gotten to kiss Liss Kirsch – and that it seemed like there was a very good chance that he would get to do it again. But the rest of him was just confused. What had changed her mind so suddenly? And what about Ellis – was she cheating on him with Dmitri? That didn’t sound like the Liss he knew, but he was beginning to wonder if maybe he didn’t know her as well as he thought he did.

The next day, they talked for a long time. He said that if they were going to do this, he wanted to know exactly what it was they were doing – and that if it involved Liss cheating on Ellis with him, he wanted no part of it.

The first kiss had been a mistake, Liss said. She had just gotten back from a date with Ellis, and he had been talking about what he wanted from the future, which, for Ellis, didn’t extend further than good food and lots of fun. Liss had found herself wondering what kind of a future their relationship had, when she wanted so much more from life than that. Talking to Dmitri, she had been reminded of the intense mental connection they’d always had, and all of a sudden that had seemed like the most attractive thing in the world. She had kissed him… and she had realized she wanted to keep on doing it. It was that simple.

A part of Dmitri didn’t want to question his good luck. Nevertheless, he insisted – Liss had to break up with Ellis before anything could happen between them. She assured him that she would – she just needed to find the right time.

But days went by, then weeks, and Liss and Ellis were still together.

He tried to distract himself by throwing himself into his schoolwork, even doing extra credit work, which he had never done before. Dzika knew something was up – she pestered him until he finally told her the truth. She did not approve. She and Liss had never gotten along, and to her, this only proved that Liss wasn’t good for her brother.

Dmitri insisted that Dzika was wrong about Liss. But he couldn’t deny that every time he saw her with Ellis, it sent him into a mood for the rest of the day. Especially since she was still coming over to his house in the evenings, and he couldn’t bring himself to turn her away.

Eventually the stress started getting to him to the point where he couldn’t even concentrate on his schoolwork anymore, and his homework started going undone despite his grandmother’s lectures. She disapproved of his relationship with Liss, and she didn’t even know the full story. She just knew that Liss was distracting him from what he needed to be focusing on. Their frequent arguments didn’t help Dmitri’s state of mind.

He started asking Liss more and more insistently whether she was going to break up with Ellis, and getting mad when she evaded the question. More than once, he almost told her that they were done. But the thought of losing her forever – not just as whatever she was to him now, but as a friend – always made him stop.

* * *

(I'd just like to note that I am not to blame for this drama. Liss was the one who kept refusing Dmitri's advances. Liss was the one who started stalking Ellis. Liss was the one who showed up at Dmitri's house sad and looking for comfort, and then started flirting with him for no reason. And Liss was the one who agreed to be Dmitri's girlfriend even though she hadn't broken up with Ellis. She's doing this all herself; I'm just trying to keep up.)