The Fray twins were walking back home, giggling like high school girls and talking about nothing interesting, " I can already see it, "Fencing star student, Eleanor Fray, defeat Fencing star, Liam Jones." Clary giggles while Nell counters "Brooklyn's Academy of Arts's prodigy, Clarissa Fray, wins yet another award for outstanding painting." until they both simultaneously "Arts and Sports star, Clarissa and Eleanor Fray, prodigy twins." breaking in laughter seconds later as they enter the shop bellow their loft, "Hey, Dot." the twin say in unison once more, "Hey!" The older woman says with a bright smile, "How's your future looking?" Clary inquires while her twin adds "Any hot guys gonna come in and swoop you off your feet?"
Dot laughed and said "No and it's not as good as both of yours. Hmm. The tarot cards tell me you got into the advanced program and that you will be competing in the next fencing tournament." the twins once more shared a look and Clary replied "And by 'the tarot cards', you mean, 'Simon's Twitter account'?"everyone chuckles and Dot confessed "Okay, I follow him. Mmm. Turns out, predicting the future with tarot cards is very complicated. But, I do see a birthday present in both your futures." as she reaches for the two bags behind the counter and placed them in front of each girl "Dot!"the girls giggle, each of them grabbed a bag, "Okay, open it!" Dot encouraged.
Being the eldest Nell was the first to open her gift, pulling from the bag a short black flowy dress, with a deep and plunging neckline and a ribbon at the back "Wow!" she gasped staring at it while her twin pulled out a slightly revealing shirt from her own bag, "Yeah, you might want to keep that on the DL, 'cause your mom's my boss and I don't want her to flip out." Dot said smiling at the twins, "Yeah, but that's how I know it's cool." the twins reply in unison, something that Dot had grown used to them doing. "You know, you're way better at gift-giving than magically predicting the future." Clary stated, "Nothing magical about it. I just buy the things I wanna wear." Dot replies making Nell scoff teasingly "I'm sorry but I don't see you wearing this dress in a million years."
The trio laughed slightly before Dot threw her arms around the twins and hugged them while whispering "Happy birthday." To which the twins whispered back "Thank you.", "I love you, girls." Dot then adds which was answered with "We love you, too." before she pulls back as sighs deeply, Nell frowns at Dot's actions while Clary inquires "You okay?", "Yeah." the tanned brunette woman said chuckling slightly, "Yeah, happy birthday. Go up and see your mom." she quickly added, the twins of course nodded and wasted no time in running up the stairs, Clary holding her top bag, her art's folder and her backpack while Nell carried her backpack and her dress bag, "Mom!" they called out as they reached the living room, "You did it! Yay!" Jocelyn Fray, the mother of the twins, whom they had inherited their flaming hair, squealed as she ran to them, this of course made the twins laugh and inquire sarcastically "You also follow Simon?"
To which Jocelyn answered with "He only has 92 followers. He needs the retweets. Congratulations." as she wrapped her arms around the youngest tightly before moving to her eldest while Clary chuckled and said "Thank you. Hashtag, stalker mom." Jocelyn pulled away from Nell who plopped on the couch like a lifeless body and sighed in satisfaction, "Happy birthday." the matriarch and only parent of the family said as she held out two boxes, one for Nell and one for Clary which the two grabbed gently. Nell scooted to the other side of the couch while Clary sat where her twin had just been sitting, while Jocelyn sat in between the two and watched as her twins opened the box, to reveal a thin, slightly twisted, pencil like metal stick.
"It's called a steele." Jocelyn told them gently, "What is it, like, a paperweight?" Clary inquired as she picked it up, as did Nell who the second she picked it up stared at it in a haze. "No, it's much more than that. It's very ancient. I want you to have it. It's a family heirloom." Jocelyn added, "We Frays have heirlooms?" Clary chuckled making her mother smile softly and say "A few." Clary smiled back and looked at the steele and mumbled "You know, it's weird. I doodled something that looked like this this morning. I must have seen this around the house somewhere." This seemed to alarm Jocelyn because she started in an urgent tone "Honey, I need to..."but unfortunately fate isn't on her side because Clary's phone beeps attracting her attention "Simon. He's on his way over." the youngest ginger said.
"But we need to talk." Jocelyn pressed urgently, the two standing up, completely oblivious to the frozen redhead, "I can't right now. I gotta change. I'm going to see Champagne Enema tonight." Clary explained to her mother as she began to walk backwards, "What?" the matriarch asked incredibly confused, "Yeah, I know. It's the new band name. But Simon and Maureen are taking me out after." Clary clarified, "But it's... It's your 18th birthday, and, uh... everything's gonna change for you now." Jocelyn started once more but Clary laughed and said "Mom, we've had the talk. I'm good."
Jocelyn huffed, grabbed her youngest daughter's hand, forcing her to stay still and said "We need to have a much different and more important talk."to which Clary replied by saying "And we will. But can it be over breakfast, all right? I love you. Thank you for the heirloom. I love you." she then rushed out of the room before her mother could say anything else, which in turn made Jocelyn turn around only to find her eldest still spaced out as she stared at the steele.
