Nellie clutched her backpack to her chest, her heart pounding as if it was the first day of school all over again. She shuffled through the crowd of kids to her locker, pausing after each number on her lock to remember the next one. There was a small relief when the lock opened.
Nathalie insisted that Ira stay the night with them, but he was too tired and busy setting up his arrangements home to talk much. Nellie fell asleep before she learned what the plans were, and he was still asleep when she left for school that morning. She hoped they would get a few minutes.
“Perenelle!”
Ava, Olivia, Sophia, and Emma boxed her in on all sides. They wore various expressions of disgruntled, annoyed, and minor concern.
“You missed school yesterday,” Ava said.
“OMG, we didn’t know what to think,” the possible Emma said. “We had this plan to all meet at the car rider lane after, and you just never even showed up to homeroom.”
“Please, please, please tell me that college guy is picking you up,” the suspected Sophia whined.
“I don’t know,” Nellie said glumly. “He’s supposed to leave today, but I don’t know when.”
The bell to get to homeroom sounded. Two of the girls she was not certain the names of headed to Miss Campbell’s room with her. She took her seat near the back while they sat side-by-side up front. She listened attentively to Miss Campbell calling attendance, learning that homeroom was shared with blonde Emma and pig-tailed Sophia. That left curly-haired Olivia as the one who wandered off with bespectacled Ava
“Perenelle Herle,” Miss Campbell said, both bored and angry.
“Here.”
“Really,” Miss Campbell said, squinting at her through her thick frames. “How surprising. Should I just go ahead and mark you absent tomorrow?”
Nellie felt her face burn as she murmured and shrunk into her seat. She kept her head down for the rest of homeroom but found her following teachers just as disgruntled with her attendance, voicing it for all the kids to hear and inciting snickers and stares.
Her phone loudly sounded out a few cheerful boops, interrupting the math class. The teacher angrily stormed down the aisle at her as she hastily extracted her phone.
“Phone,” he demanded, holding out his hand.
“S-sorry, I forgot to–,” Nellie said shakily.
“Phone!”
She hesitantly held out her booping phone, flinching as the teacher snatched it away. She slid down in her seat as the teacher answered the video call.
“You are interrupting–.”
‘How dare you answer my niece’s phone, you insolent, little man,’ Uncle Winston’s voice came angrily. ‘Her gran has died. Put her on immediately!’
“Ex-excuse–!”
‘I shall be calling the school board over this,’ Uncle Winston said. ‘Put Perenelle on!’
Nellie stood, grabbed the phone and her stuff, and bolted into the hall. Tears were running down her lightly freckled cheeks, she was sniffing heartily to stop any snot from joining in.
“N-Nana–,” Nellie started.
‘Nana is fit as a fiddle, sweatpea,’ Uncle Winston said hastily. ‘I fibbed to get your phone back. So sorry for the call. I thought it was your lunch hour.’
“Uncle Winston,” Nellie fumed.
‘Sincerest apologies, lovey, truly,’ Uncle Winston stressed. ‘I’m heading home and I thought we’d squeeze in our chat. Margo isn’t here to distract us away.’
It took a moment for her to remember that she had asked Uncle Winston yesterday morning if her mother’s family wanted her. Finding Cecily and Ira being injured by the white screamer had driven it into the back of her mind.
Nellie paled as her conversation with Ira immediately prior to finding Cecily flitted into her mind.
‘Perhaps we should try tomorrow,’ Uncle Winston said, frowning at her reaction. ‘I’ll send word to your school to mitigate the trouble I've caused.’
“No, no, it’s fine,” Nellie said quickly. “Lunch starts in ten minutes. I can talk.”
She wiped her eyes as she wandered about to find a quiet area where the video did not stutter. She slid down the slick, whitewashed cinderblock wall to the cold floor. The winter sun poured through the window over her head, creating a warm haze.
“Did my mother’s family want me,” Nellie asked.
‘Your uncle did,’ Uncle Winston said. ‘Your mother’s younger brother. I became aware that there is an older brother. And older sister.’
“I have another aunt and uncle,” Nellie said.
‘You do,’ Uncle Winston said. ‘I don’t know how well their relationship with your mother was. They’re from your maternal grandfather’s first marriage, and much older. Teenagers when your mother came about from my guess.’
“And… this aunt and this uncle didn’t want me,” Nellie asked.
‘No,’ Uncle Winston said plainly. ‘They were most difficult to contact. They showed little interest in the fact you existed and that some tragedy befell your mother. Claimed they were too busy with their families and careers.’
Uncle Winston was not mincing words. It stung, but not much nor for more than a second. Nellie did not know these people. It sounded like they cared nothing for their younger sister. It was good they did not want her. They sounded worse than dealing with the teachers at this school.
The Regere wanted her.
‘Still with me, sweatpea,’ Uncle Winston asked.
“My other uncle, the younger brother, he did want me,” Nellie said. “Why didn’t he get me? Why wasn’t there some sort of contact, or joint custody thing, or however that works?”
‘Rhys was adamant that he have no contact, and so we built the case for Nathalie to have soul guardianship. His arguments for retaining you were too weak. The win was easy enough, even with your maternal grandparents arguing on his behalf.’ Uncle Winston chuckled. ‘He called them in. They were so wary of him that it likely hurt him more than helped.’
Ira mentioned the Regere was powerful but could not claim he was a dangerous man. His parents treating him with caution went back to the idea that he was someone dangerous.
“What arguments did he have,” Nellie asked.
‘Playmate for his son,’ Uncle Winston said. ‘As stated, quite weak. Buy the boy a puppy.’
“I have another cousin,” Nellie asked.
‘Several,’ Uncle Winston said. ‘But this boy is the only your age.’ He smiled ruefully. ‘So sorry Lillian and Geoffrey are so much older. Holidays must’ve been so dull. Oh, speaking of Lillian, her beau finally got the greenlight to meet with me to ask for her hand. He called the office to schedule a lunch meeting with me next week. Isn’t that quaint?’
“He’s meeting you to ask to marry her when she told him to meet with you and ask,” Nellie asked unsurely. “Doesn’t that mean she already knows he’s going to ask?”
‘Yes, but he’s wanted to marry her for the last year, but she was waiting for her promotion to go through first,’ Uncle Winston said. ‘You’ll meet him properly at Christmas. Nat is sure to drag you across the pond with this news.’ The phone jostled as he disconnected it from its mount. ‘I’m home now, Nellie dearie. Is there anything else you wish to talk about?’
“I think… I’m good,” Nellie said. “I’ll text if I think of anything else. Thanks, Uncle Winston.”
‘Of course,’ he said. ‘I’ll be sure to straighten things out with that dreadful school. Don’t worry your pretty head over that. Cheers.’
The screen blacked out. She exhaled as a weight lifted, tucking her phone back into her pocket after silencing it. She had not heard the bell to end class, but that could have been due to her paying attention and processing what Uncle Winston was saying. She decided if the bell had not yet rung, it was still close enough to go off to the lunchroom.
The bell rung as she entered the lunchroom.
“That solves that,” she murmured to herself.
Nellie collected her disappointing lunch and searched for a seat. There was one open at a packed table of kids a grade older. They would likely let her sit there so long as they were free to ignore her. She took a few steps that way, pausing when she spotted a table with five open seats. She teetered, and switched directions to occupy one of the empty five.
A thought sprung into her mind as she started on her food. She pulled out her phone and opened her messages to Uncle Winston.
What’s my uncle’s name?
She remembered Ira’s joke and quickly added:
The one that wanted me as a playmate for his son.
She looked up as Olivia, Ava, Sophia, and Emma sank into the empty seats around her. She gave them a weak smile as her heart beat rapidly.
“OMG, Perenelle, I’m so sorry about your granny,” Emma said. “And that was totally uncalled for answering your phone like that!”
“My grandmother isn’t dead,” Nellie muttered. “Apparently, my uncle thought that was the best way to get my phone back.”
“Oh… that’s kind of messed up,” Ava said. “Sorry, that was mean.”
“It was accurate,” Nellie said.
“What’s messed up is teachers freaking out and stealing our phones,” Olivia said, tossing her curls off her shoulder. “That’s a total invasion of privacy.”
They sat around seething about the unfairness of the teachers, administrators, and the school while they picked over their lunches. Nellie found her smile growing more genuine as her posture relaxed. She even laughed along as the subject switched to swooning over Ira and lamenting his going.
Nellie trudged through the rest of the school day feeling a bit better knowing she was not overreacting to how the teachers were treating her. She headed out to the car rider awning, tentatively approaching Emma and Olivia to wait. She pulled out her phone to check the time, and perhaps call Ira to see if he would be gracing them with his presence, but was immediately distracted by a response from Uncle Winston.
Brecken Agarwal. Cheers, Winston.
---
Ira had gone to the airport shortly before school let out, leaving Nathalie to send his deepest regrets on not saying a proper goodbye. He had left her the phone number for the local Order of Ferblanc should she need it in the future.
Nellie sat on her bedroom floor with the box of her father’s letters at her side and the family photo album on her bed next to her head. Ash lay at her feet, ripping his toy to bits.
The letters were careful to avoid using Brecken’s name, always calling him Regere and always phrased in a way that spoke to admiration peppered with frustrations. The most recent letters had a more worried tone, but there was no specific direction for it named.
“I didn’t imagine Ira saying my mother was a dragon, did I,” Nellie asked Ash. “It was a stressful situation…. Well, I guess the stress started after he said it, so it wouldn’t’ve been some stress induced…. I don’t even know.” She pet Ash. “I suppose writing your sister to say your wife is a dragon is a bit out there when you’re so careful to not even mention your boss’s first name. Wait… are my parents even married?” She buried her face in her hands. “This is all too much!”
She pulled the album onto her lap, turning it to the photo of Rhys at his graduation. She felt her wavy auburn hair and traced his blond waves with her finger. She shared his blue eyes too. She carried the album out of the room with her to avoid any mishaps with Ash taking too much interest in it. She sank down on the worn couch next to Nathalie, peeking at the laptop screen.
“Oh, you’re budgeting,” Nellie said.
“Unfortunately,” Nathalie said. She bit her thumbnail. “The drive will need to be widened and paved. Perhaps the front of the house as well.”
“There’s no grass out front anyway,” Nellie said encouragingly.
“It may be the first thing to be done,” Nathalie said. “I can’t image work trucks having an easy time coming and going to get the out buildings proper without firm ground for them to drive on.”
“So… you’re using the laptop for a while…,” Nellie said.
“Do you require it for schoolwork,” Nathalie asked.
“No.”
“Then, yes, I’ll be using it for a bit longer,” Nathalie said. She narrowed her eyes at the screen. “Asphalt is not as cheap as I hoped….” She grabbed her cellphone, pulling up the calculator.
Nellie did the same, opening the web browser on her phone instead of the calculator. She typed in: Brecken Agarwal.
There were no results for Brecken Agarwal directly. Brecken was common enough of a name to get a scattering, half the time it being a surname. Agarwal brought up the Bania Vaishya caste of northern India.
“I’m Indian,” Nellie said, half unsure and half shocked.
“Indian,” Nathalie questioned. She looked at Nellie’s screen. “Truly?” She frowned. “I thought Rhys said her name was…? Oh, what was it? Something decidedly not Indian.”
“Brunhilde,” Nellie said. She ran her hand over the slightly tanned skin of her arm. “I always assumed you’d hooked up with some South American….”
“Perenelle! Don’t say such things,” Nathalie said, aghast.
“Brecken isn’t Indian either,” Nellie mused. “Maybe I’m just a quarter?”
She added Brunhilde and Brue to the Brecken Agarwal search. An Instagram account for a Lila Agarwal was the top result with the remaining being short articles from online fashion blogs Nellie had never heard of. She ignored Instagram–Nathalie would not let her have an account so she would not be able to view it properly–and went to the first blog.
Lila Agarwal was a beautiful woman in her early thirties with long, thick, dark hair and deep, dark, doe-eyes. Her warm, brown skin had a glow that could have been a filter or excellent make-up on top of nutrition and skincare routines. She was a self-made model with a huge wellness following online, and the youngest of five children. Her older sisters, Meena and Chandra, were her fashion designers and her older brother, Krishna, was her manager. Her eldest brother Vihaan worked a more traditional job in her grandfather’s company.
Nellie began a new search with Vihaan Agarwal and was instantly rewarded with his LinkedIn profile. She was unable to view it without the site prompting her to switch to the app and asking her to login, but she saw enough to get the company name.
Anahata BioTech was founded by Sachin Agarwal sixty years ago, but never made much stride or impact until the late-1980s when biotechnology the world over started making huge leaps. He was now retired and his daughter Dr. Priya Khan was the CEO.
A search of Sachin Agarwal brought up a Wikipedia biography. Nellie scanned the personal life section, skipping the childhood and his first marriage, and even most of his second marriage to an American named Eileen, going to the sentences that stated:
Agarwal has four children, two from his marriage to Deva (Priya and Vikrum) and two from his marriage to Eileen (Brunhilde and Brecken). His daughter Priya is the CEO of the biotechnology company Anahata BioTech and his son Vikrum is a celebrated mandala artist. Vikrum’s youngest daughter is the wellness influencer and model Lila Agarwal.
There was no link attached to Brunhilde’s name, nor to Brecken’s. The fact that Lila Agarwal’s Instagram popped up when Brue/Brunhilde was added to the search led Nellie to assume there was a throwback picture of the model with her aunt. Or some mention of her.
“Are you logged into your Insta,” Nellie asked Nathalie.
“I assume so,” Nathalie said, still focused on her figures. “Oh, that’s an excellent idea, Nellie love! I should repost which pieces I want to sell so they’re in peoples’ feeds again. Do I have any I haven’t posted?”
Nathalie became absorbed with checking her phone gallery and comparing it to her Instagram page.
Nellie played with split ends in her hair. “Do you believe in dragons?”
Nathalie stopped scrolling. She glanced at Ash–now following his nose out of Nellie’s room–and then at Nellie. Her eyebrows knitted.
“Should I,” she asked.
“Maybe,” Nellie said, shrugging. “Ira said his mother was a dragon. And, um….”
She could not finish her thought. It still felt strange talking to Nathalie about her biological mother. It felt like betrayal, but on her part or Nathalie’s it was blurred. Her chest felt tight as he thought of Ira. He was likely still in the air, unable to be reached.
“I’m sorry, but did you just say Ira told you his mother is a dragon?”
--------------------------------
The phone ban in schools started in 2025 in TN and not all counties do it, I think. Since this is January 2024, phones are still allowed but they're supposed to be silenced and not looked at during class. Nellie is just on the wrong side of all her teachers after her lawyer uncle showed up to yell at the school. I almost had Ira picking her up again, since they didn't get into their big conversation, but he was planning on hightailing it once Cecily was found, so he did that instead.
I spent a stupidly long time naming Nellie's cousins (99% sure they never interact with her) and her grandfather's company. If her uncle Vikram or aunt Priya ever do show up, it'd just be to reinforce what Uncle Winston said about them not caring much for their younger sister and Nellie by extension. (Unsaid part is that they don't care for Brue's mother Eileen either, and that Eileen was maybe only 5 years older than Priya so they had this whole other layer of "ew dad she's so young" going on. As Winston said when he came to visit, if Nellie thinks Rhys's side is complicated, it has nothing on Brue's, lol.) Nellie has always been part Indian since coming up with the idea in 2014. Originally she was going to be half, but since half or a quarter made little difference, I did a quarter since I wanted her blue eyes more genetically believable. Nellie having reddish hair, light colored eyes, and freckles is based on my older niece since we used to go "monster hunting" around the house when she was tiny. Mostly looking for cockatrice. Nellie's looks are also inspired by what I think my Dragon Age: Inquisition character and her love interest would produce for a kid, because I had some weird fever induced cut scene that didn't exist when I played it through the first time while sick that my character told her love interest that she was pregnant right before the big battle at the end, and I just remember going 'that would make the stakes for them both surviving so much higher if that really happened' but it didn't happen (and the game overall was this weird empty letdown feeling that I still can't completely put my finger on even after replaying my two characters twice and starting seven others).
Oh yeah, that player character was named Brue. Why not use the name since I was using the design, lol?
A Tier half-transformed as a dracleon back in 2005.
Coronation, 2009
I have made at least 2 attempts at drawing the Alan Parsons Project song "Snake Eyes"... this is one from 2011...
...And this one from 2013. I like aspects of both; maybe the layout of this one but mixed with the realism of the other? I need to study my cobra anatomy if I'm going to try again, hah.
Twila Sketch, unknown
And here's just an Ace with epic scarf. I just really like scarves. This was dated 2014!
Train in the Distance, 2014?
Ava Harley, 2016
