~Jade's POV~
Before me and my family could even make it to the stairs, Johanna had kindly beckoned for my parents. Me, my brother's, and my aunt looked to them inquisitively. Our parents had even looked at each other the same, "Go on ahead." Our mother says, and she makes eye contact with me and Miles, "you two could show your brother and aunt around the house while we speak with Johanna." She suggests with a smile. And I smile as well at the idea, and nod. I head down the stairs first with Miles behind me, and him and I both lead the way to our beloved home.
Once again, any and all Amity members avoided our path as we just casually talked and walked towards our destination. I noticed something though, or I should say, someone. As we were walking, an Amity girl on her porch, who seemed to be just a little bit younger than I, looked up at us. And she didn't give us that, furrowed brow, wrinkled nose, confused glare as expected. She got, excited, and a grin slid up onto her face as she sat up to watch us pass by.
She and I made eye contact, and I decided to wave at her. She waved back just before I turned a corner, and she was blocked out of my sight, hidden by another house. I turn my head from her direction and notice I was steps away from home. I walk up the familiar wooden porch, and glide my fingertips over the dark wooden railings. I watch as Miles steps in front of the door, opens it, and holds it open for me, our aunt and our brother.
The moment I walk in the familiar smell of vanilla and honey fills my nose, and the hiss of a tea kettle fills my ears, getting louder and louder. "Mother left something on!" I say and I race into the kitchen, and quickly lift the steam blowing, water spewing tea kettle off the burner, and I also turn the stove off. I shake my head with a smile, remembering all the times she had done that before. Before me and Miles had left. "Just like the old times, right?" Miles says from behind me, and I laugh.
"Come on, let's give these two the grand tour." He insists, and I nod. We show them our room first, and by our room, I mean me and Miles's nursery. I only knew our parents had never changed nor touched it because our little multi-colored hand prints where still on the door. One vertical line of hands were pink, and the other line was blue. At the bottom of the door laid the smallest hand print, and at the top laid the biggest.
I remember dipping the palm of my hand in paint and placing the higher up ones but, I don't remember placing the lower and smaller ones. But then I do remember something, I remember that our parents made it a tradition for us to put a hand print on our door every other birthday of ours. And the reason I don't remember the smaller ones is because I was young. And now I'm too old to remember. Miles opens the door to our nursery, and as expected, I see our cribs.
One on either side of the medium sized room, with the same bookshelf in between. Although, their were more toys and activities then books on the shelf. I walk over to my crib, and I can see all of my old favorite toys neatly lined up against the sides. I smile and pick up the one and only toy that sat in the middle. It was a pink bear and it had a white belly and black eyes.
I then remember all the times Miles would try and run over the sweet looking bear with his little toy cars when we were little. I held the little bear and walk over to Miles, who happened to be showing Liam the exact set of cars I was thinking about. I smile, and then I spot something on the shelf, "Oooh Miles, look what I found." I say, and I grab this soft, light blue blanket which laid right on top. Miles looks at me, and spots the blanket. "Oh my god, is that what I think it is?" He says in disbelief, and I hand him the blanket.
Liam looks at the blanket with a curious expression. "It sure is, it's your Me-Me, or at least, that's what you'd call it." (Pronounced ME-ME, not meme. >.<)Â I say, and I hear Liam stifle a laugh as he turned away to hide his face. "Me-Me? Really?" He asks Miles, and Miles rolled his eyes, "Ha. Ha. Hilarious, Yes my childhood blankie is named Me-Me. Don't hate." Miles responds in a sassy tone. He then turned around, and whips the blanket over his shoulder, whacking Liam in the face with the other end. Liam gasped and almost instantly, a mischievous smile slid onto his face.
Suddenly, Liam grabs Miles's blanket from off his shoulder and runs out the nursery, throwing the door closed behind him. Miles unhesitatingly runs after him, pulling the door open. My and aunt and I laugh, just before exiting our nursery with them. I watch as my brother's run into the kitchen, just as Miles grabs his blanket out of Liam's clutches. Or so he thought he did, "Let go monkey breath!" He demands, seeming half serious and half not, beginning to play tug of war with the blue blanket.
"Maybe you'll think twice before smacking people with blankets!" Liam shouts back, obviously playing around. Just then, our front door is pulled open, and our mother and father walk in. My brother's freeze in place as they make eye contact with our parents, and they had a look of suspicion aimed at the two boys. They straighten up at the same time, "he started it!" They both say, pointing at one another in unison. My parents, along with my aunt and I burst into laughter.
Liam tosses the blanket over and onto Miles's head, "here, now you can have your precious blanket back." He says, and Miles pulls the blanket from off his head. And both my brothers stare daggers at one another as Miles heads back to the nursery, I assume to put his childhood blanket back. They kept eye contact until he got to the door, "Don't kill each other please, it'd be a shame to gain a brother and then immediately lose one in a single day." I say jokingly, and my parents nod as they come by me and Liam's side. "There will be no killing in this house nor in this family so, you two better kiss and make up." My father says looking to Liam, just as Miles comes back from the nursery. Miles smiles and then suddenly, licks the palm of his hand, and attempts to wipe it onto Liam's cheek.
Obviously taking our father's words a bit too seriously, and also, a bit wrong. Liam happens to notice and dodges his hand, and unfortunately, I feel something warm and wet make contact with my face. I slap his hand away, "Eww Miles!" I shout in disgust as I wipe my brother's saliva from my cheek. I watch both of them laugh uncontrollably, along with my aunt and father. And my mother just giggles a bit. I playfully glare at my brother's, "oh it's on." I whisper to them in a chuckle, commencing the very beginning of endless sibling pranks.
I give Miles a certain look and he stops laughing, and a mischievous smile grows onto his face, letting me know that he knows what is about to happen. "You haven't gave me that look in a few years, you sure you wanna do this Nat?" Miles asks with his arms crossed and one of his eyebrows raised. Liam looks between our glares confused as ever, "what? What look? And do what exactly?" He questions. And I smile at how curious he was. "Before our choosing ceremony, me and Miles would have prank wars here on Amity grounds. One time I had told Miles that I was really good at balancing a cup of water on the back of my hand, and I challenged him if he could balance two cups of water on the back of both of his hands. Why don't you tell him what happened Miles?" I ask him, watching him smile for just a second before his face contorted into slight annoyance.
"I set both my palms onto the table, and I let her set both cups onto the back of my hands. I looked away for one second and she was poof, gone. I was forced to spill one of them and it got all over my pants. And to make matters worse, I walk out the room, and see that she invited over one of her friends that I had liked back then. I gotta admit, she got me good that day." Miles explains, and both me and Liam were laughing by the time he mentioned he spilled one of the cups. "But sis, why don't you tell him how I got you back?" Miles asks, and I roll my eyes, remembering the exact day he got me back. I tell Liam that he had balanced a plastic bucket of freezing water on top of the bathroom door that next day, in the morning. And unfortunately, I also tell him how I, as expected, went to use the bathroom and got a disturbing, and not to mention, cold wake up call. I watch my brother's laugh, and eventually, I laugh as well.
I look off to the side and see my parents and aunt chatting amongst one another on the couch. I pull both my brothers over to the living room, and we sit and join in the conversation. Our father talked a little bit about his time at Dauntless with our aunt, which transitioned into us talking about our aunt, and what she and her best-friend had done. "So, when Johanna had taken Liam to Dauntless years ago, you had seen her and Dauntless's leader, and stepped in?" My mother asks, and my aunt nods and smiles. "One morning over at Dauntless, I decided to step outside for some fresh air. And I couldn't help but notice an Amity truck quickly pass by me. Back then, I didn't know what made me want to follow and investigate, but I had this gut feeling the moment the truck passed me so, I did. I hid behind a corner and watched Johanna get out the truck and approach our leader, with a baby bundled in blue in her arms." Our aunt pauses, "Many nights before that day I prayed for a miracle for my best-friend and, it was then I realized the miracle was happening right in front of me. So I took action, and came to find out that he needed someone." Our aunt looks to the side at Liam.
"He needed someone who would love him unconditionally. So I mentioned my best-friend to both leaders, and they had agreed, and Johanna placed Liam in my arms and followed me to meet my best-friend. I had no idea I'd be raising my own nephew with her though." Our aunt explained, she kept eye contact with Liam and gave him a warm smile, and an endearing gaze. And since they were sitting next to each other, my aunt placed her hand onto his cheek. I found myself smiling as my brother and aunt shared a touching moment. "Her name?" Our mother asks softly. Liam sniffles as she drops her hand from his cheek, "Jane Carter." He says, obviously emotional. "She was an outstanding best-friend, and I can assure you," my aunt pauses once more, and looks to our mother while reaching in her jacket pocket.
"She was an amazing parent to Liam while in Dauntless." She adds, pulling out and unfolding what looked like an ordinary piece of paper. I soon realized it wasn't just paper. It was actually the photo that I had found in the hallway of our aunts apartment, that captured a moment with both my aunt, little brother, and Jane, years ago. She handed it to our mother, and our mother immediately smiled the moment she took and laid her eyes on it. "She's absolutely gorgeous. And seeming from how happy my little William looks in this picture, I can tell you are right. But one question," Our mother pauses with a slight quirk, "you speak of her in past tense. Why?" She asks.
And I watch as our aunt and Liam's happy expressions drop, and they look at each other sorrowfully. "When I was just about seven. . . She uh, s-she . . ." Liam trailed off staring down at his hands now. It hurt me to see the tears pool in his eyes. Our aunt placed a hand onto his knee and gave him a certain look. An understanding look.
A look that obviously told him to cease his explanation. She looked back to our mother and father, "Several years after he arrived at Dauntless, Jane had fell sick with a terminal illness. At one point, after about half a year, she had gotten better, healthier even. So you can imagine how happy both me and him were after hearing the good news." Our aunt paused, and her gaze fell, "unfortunately, the doctors thought she had been cured and took her off her medications. A week after they did she had passed. I was more then heartbroken and so was Liam." She finished as a single tear fell. Our mother had a look of empathy on her face as she had a hand clasped over her mouth, as did our father. "I am so sorry for your loss," our mother says to our aunt, "you as well William." Our mother then pauses for a few moments. "I do know exactly how you both feel though. How it feels to lose someone. Someone who you weren't necessarily related to but, they had nonetheless felt like family." Our mother says, making gentle eye contact with our aunt.
I now feel sympathy for both my aunt and my mother. Seeming I know exactly who see was talking about. "Who had you lost? If you don't mind me asking." Our aunt says, and my mother looks to me with a smile. But somehow, my mother managed to make her genuine smile seem.. sorrowful. "My own best-friend. I felt the same way about her as you did with your own. She felt like a sister. And unfortunately, she had passed while I was still pregnant with these three. Her name was Natalie." My mother explains, and my aunt looks over to me with a slight gasp.
"And so you had named your own daughter after her to keep a piece of her with you. That's so touching." My aunt says, with a hand over her heart. "And just before she had passed, her best-friend had even given her this necklace." I say, and I take off my gemstone necklace, and hold it up for my aunt to see. I hear my mother gasp, "and as you can see it's made out of Jade, and that, just happens to me my middle name. I'm named after a women I'll never be able to meet but, it is nice to have something, and also be named after something that meant a lot to her." I add, now holding both the unattached ends, and the gemstone piece of the necklace, admiring it. I look up at my shocked mother, and I realize I never got to tell her Ben found it for me. "You... you found it! when did you find it? Or i should say, how did you find it? You've been in dauntless this whole time." My mother jumps in her seat asking, she looked ecstatic.
I explain how Ben had found it the day before our choosing ceremony, and I also explain how he had told us he never stopped looking, even when me and Miles gave up. And from there on out our family continued to talk, and listen. We all caught up with one another, and eventually, our mother had even showed some family picture books to our Aunt and little brother. Seeing the picture book reminded me to give my parents something. I pulled out the picture that our aunt took of us earlier and handed it to my father, since I was huddled up next to him viewing the pictures along with everyone else.
"Aww, honey look." He says and shows our mother, and she smiles from cheek to cheek. "I absolutely love it. Our first picture of all three of you." She says, as she flips the picture book in her lap all way to the front. She puts it into the first blank pages corner slits, and glides her fingers over it, admiring. She closes the book, sighs, and then suddenly, she goes a little tense, "what time is it?" She asks with her eyebrows furrowed. Miles pulls back his sleeve again, "it's 9:58 p.m. Why?" He asks her, and her eyes widen.
"The deal I made with your leaders on visiting day was that you may visit us in Amity, without consequence, as long as you get back before curfew! When is Dauntless curfew?" Our mother questions, and I ponder for a second, trying to recall the exact moment when I was told the answer to her question. "10:30 is Dauntless curfew, when everyone needs to be in the building." Liam says, and we all stand without hesitation. All three of us separately give our parents big, long hugs. They tell us to come visit them again on our birthday for a big surprise, and we agree, regardless if it was against the rules to leave Dauntless Headquarters again. We head out the beloved house of ours and they stand at the door way, and wave me, my brother's and aunt goodbye.