Page 60 of The Tribrid Princess and the Taste of Chaos
Mom raises an eyebrow. “Is she? I know she’s been struggling with her powers.”
Do we need to talk about Sienna?
“She’ll figure it out. So, new hair colour?” I ask, trying to change the subject.
Mom’s smile vanishes, now replaced with sharp curiosity in her two uniquely-coloured eyes. “Jayce, is everything alright? You aren’t being too hard on Sienna, are you?”
“No, I just don’t see why we need to talk about her.”
Ok, this is getting worse. Why is everyone asking me about her?
“Mmm… she is a pretty girl, isn’t she?”
I narrow my eyes. “I don’t know, never noticed.”
Mom sits back now. “You never noticed?” she asks with disbelief.
Renji… it has got to be that little shit.
“No.”
“Oh. You’re so observant, I would have thought you would have.” She smiles slyly. “Or are you saying you never noticed, meaning youhavenoticed?”
I smirk, sitting forward. “I guess it’s because no one’s beauty holds a candle to yours.”
She smiles fondly at me before shaking her head. “You are a sweet talker. I’ll let you off the hook this time.”
Thank the Goddess.
“By the way, do you like the purple?” She lifts the ends of her hair. “I was getting bored with the blue.”
“Yeah, it looks good,” I compliment her. Mom’s always loved dying her hair, and so did Grandma. “So is Grandad there, or out on work?”
“He’s here. We were thinking of having a little dinner. Obviously, in celebration of you becoming a division leader, which was your grandma’s idea.”
“You guys really don’t need to do that; it isn’t a big deal.”
“It is for me.”
I nod. “Then we’ll do it. We will be able to get an evening off, all of us.”
“Excellent, you just tell me when you can and we’ll work around you boys.”
She tells me how her day went, what they ate, what she’s been up to recently and a little about Katara before she realises the time and tells me to get some sleep. We say our goodbyes before hanging up, and I look down at the messages sent from Katara. There are links to several makeup products and the shades underneath, and I sigh.
This girl.
I order what she wants so it’s out of the way and then get to work, pulling up a translator on my phone, and taking a photo of the text on the page that surrounds the symbol I’ve been drawing.
But it keeps displaying ‘ERROR’ or ‘UNCLEAR’.
Who should I ask? Ahren, maybe? He has enough of his own shit to deal with.
How hard can it be? I pull up the Arabic alphabet and glance at the letters written on the page.
Well fuck, that ain’t easy either. It’s obviously not modern Arabic. My eyes snap to the wall to my left. Sienna…
Not happening.
