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On Sunday, Bella drives to the movie theater with Angela in tow, and her car breaks on the way home from Angela's house. She calls a tow truck, and calls her dad, and she goes home in the cop car and her station wagon goes on vacation to the mechanic.
On Monday, Charlie drives Bella to school.
As she's been discharged from the car and Charlie pulls away, a van driven by a panicking teenager screams out of nowhere towards Bella.
Making wishes is easy.
It is not automatic. It is not instantaneous.
The van creams Bella, good and proper.
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Bella collects them all in a little heap and wishes on one of her pentagons. They appear all strung on a necklace like hers - chain with no clasp, expansible, invisible and insubstantial to anyone not herself or Alice. She then drapes it around his neck, pats him on the head, and gets up to go start dinner.
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Bella has made "the nice chicken recipe" often enough that she doesn't work from a recipe; she has the amounts memorized. "Wanna help?" she asks Alice.
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"Spiffy." Bella assigns him to fetch her ingredients and measuring cups and the like from the relevant cupboards, and she turns on the oven and starts taking the chicken out of the packaging.
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Alice cheerfully fetches all the things he is tasked to fetch.
"So apparently," he says after a little while, "if we're a 1950s married couple, I'm the wife."
This seems to please him inordinately.
"So apparently," he says after a little while, "if we're a 1950s married couple, I'm the wife."
This seems to please him inordinately.
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"Meh, I didn't barge in wearing a suit from work and shout that I was home," Bella points out. "Besides, I cook too, I was just tired." She mixes capers into the sauce for the chicken and lets it sit, and then dredges the pieces in flour. "Lucky you I bought extra chicken - I decided to start leaving leftovers more to make up for how often I'm having dinner at yours of late. Charlie manages - I mean, he didn't starve to death during some non-summer season before I moved here for good - but it's really not pretty."
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"Oooh, cake," says Bella, grinning. "Yes please." She pops the chicken in the oven and continues work on the sauce, adding teaspoonsful of various spices.
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"Uh..." She consults her mental recipe. "Pepper, and may as well get the turner out of the cooking utensil drawer now. Then we're all set until..." - she sets the timer on the oven - "the chicken comes out."
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Bella peppers the sauce and strategically locates the turner, just as Charlie walks in.
"Hullo, Bells." He glances at Alice. "Laney."
"Hi, Dad," Bella says happily. "We made chicken."
"Hullo, Bells." He glances at Alice. "Laney."
"Hi, Dad," Bella says happily. "We made chicken."
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"Hi," says Alice.
He is less nervous and awkward around Charlie now, but he is still nervous and awkward.
He is less nervous and awkward around Charlie now, but he is still nervous and awkward.
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"Mm," says Charlie. He looks at the oven timer while he shuts the door behind him. He pointedly hangs up his gun, eyes on Alice, and says, "Chicken's always good."
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...Alice grins and bites his lip, accumulating triangles for a few seconds, because it is so hard not to flirt a little.
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Charlie decides to pass the time between now and chicken readiness in watching some manner of sporting event on TV.
Bella mouths, Really? at Alice.
Bella mouths, Really? at Alice.
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My dad! Bella mouths in exasperation, and then she says aloud, "Well, this'll be a while, let's go hang out upstairs."
"Keep the door open," Charlie calls over the TV.
The point of this when they have been in the house alone together for several hours already is lost on Bella, but she says, "Okay, Dad."
"Keep the door open," Charlie calls over the TV.
The point of this when they have been in the house alone together for several hours already is lost on Bella, but she says, "Okay, Dad."
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"I'm sort of hoping to set him up with Hilary," Bella confesses in a low voice, once they're up in her room and can barely hear the TV.
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Bella nods happily. "Not sure how to go about it though. I mean, they've already met."
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"Oh. Well, that's potentially inconvenient," sighs Bella. "And potentially not. How do you know?"