Blessing Moon

Five: Beanni

"Beanni, get up!" The young teen heard her mother call to her outside her bedroom door. The stinging behind her eyelids made it feel like it was the Noir hour itself; it felt so inappropriate to get up this early.

"Beanni!" Lorren Draoicis-Lus repeated, her voice rising in her frustration.

"I'm up!" Beanni croaked and heard her mother's footsteps walk away, as she stretched out her arms and sat up.

She flung her legs over the side of the wooden frame and flipped her long, wavy, light-auburn hair over her head so that it draped to her favoured side. With an involuntary groan, she scrunched up her face then allowed her sapphire eyes to blink open to let in the pale light of dawn.

She dragged her heels towards her chest-of-drawers and fought against her heavy eyelids to focus on the wooden structure. She had no idea what she should wear that day. It being her first day attending Queen Amber Academy seemed to pile on the pressure to make the perfect decision.

"By the stars, Bay! Pull yourself together!" she scolded herself out loud and forced her hands to open a drawer.

She put on plain underwear, then fished out a pair of blue trousers, a white vest and her favourite baggy, knitted jumper. She practically lived in that over-sized, knitwear. Her father bought it for himself from the Sprèintis family a year ago, but never got to wear it because his little girl took it, tried it on and fell in love with it. Of course Lorrus loved to see a smile upon his blue-eyed lass's face and could not bring himself to ask for it back. It fell over her slender shoulders like a warm embrace and the long sleeves flopped over her hands in a quirky, yet endearing way.

When Beanni was finally dressed she grabbed her belt with the built in maroon pouch, which housed her light orb, tied it around her wool-clad waist and headed towards the door.

She made her way to the kitchen, where her two brothers and her favourite person in the whole world sat having breakfast.

"Good morning, Bay!" Lorrus greeted her from behind a slice of toast that was raised towards his smiling face.

"Morning Daddy!" She skipped to his side and gave him a quick peck on the cheek before sitting down.

"It took you long enough, Beanni, what were you doing this whole time?" Lorren questioned her daughter over her hunched shoulder, as she slaved over the dishes in the kitchen sink.

"I..." Beanni's cheeks began to burn as she felt the gaze of her eldest brother on her, she knew that he would judge her for what she was going to say next. "I didn't know what to wear."

Then, just as she expected, a loud scoff was heard from the other side of the table. He didn't dare do much else - not whilst his father was sitting beside him.

"How are you feeling about today, Bay?" Lorrus asked, his dark eyes filled with genuine concern for his daughter.

"Fine," she answered. Her sapphire eyes were not able to leave the force of her brother's ridiculing smirk.

"Well you needn't worry about it. Okay? Dillan will keep you right." His focus then switched to his younger son who seemed to be in a world of his own. "Isn't that right, Dillan?"

"Hmm?"

"You'll take care of your sister won't you?" Lorrus asked, purposefully ignoring the irritable nature of his other son's head shake.

"Oh! Yeah, sure!" The dark haired lad nodded quickly and gave a quick, timid smile towards Beanni before his amber eyes met the intimidating frown of his brother. He then shrank back and dug into the rest of his breakfast.