Cousins in Arms

[Gifted]

Willow gathered their few things and put them neatly in the bag. A always, she was organized and responsible and it took very little time. Then she led the way out to the park gates and sat on a planter by the curb, under a tree where Adam could see them by pulling the car up. "I'm sorry, Kailen." She said after a couple minutes.

[Raven]

"For what?" Kailen asked from where he'd sat next to her.

[Gifted]

"For suggesting we go today. For picking the most obvious spot. It was my job to make sure we got here and back safely and didn't get caught. I should have known this wuld happen. I'm really sorry."

[Raven]

"It's not your fault," Kailen responded, leaning against her.

[Gifted]

She looked down. "Thank you." She said. Her eyes stayed trained on her hands, clasped in front of her as she sat forward with her head down, waiting for the car.

[Raven]

Adam didn't take much longer, pulling up in front and getting out. "Come on, get in and we'll go home. Then we'll talk about this."

[Gifted]

Willow didn't say a word. She just picked up their bags and got in the car. She was carrying most of the essentials herself, and it was pretty clear which one of them had done the planning. However, Willow had never really done anything major to get herself in trouble before. Sure she'd gotten in trouble, but it was usually some maladaptive habit she'd picked up with her father, or genuine ignorance of the rules - through simply never being taught what most other teens knew or through losing the rule in the massive canyons in her memory. She'd never deliberately and knowingly gone out of her way to flaunt and defy rules she well understood before, let alone taken steps to cover her rule-breaking up.

[Raven]

The whole ride was tensely quiet and Adam helped carry everything inside. "Kailen, go to your room. I'll talk to you about this later," he said.
Kailen scowled and stormed up the stairs.
"Willow," Adam said. "Go sit down."

[Gifted]

Willow didn't know what to say or do. She just went and sat down where she had been told to, putting her things down next to her.

[Raven]

Adam came to sit across from her. "So what was this about?"

[Gifted]

"What do you mean?" Willow asked.

[Raven]

"Why did you decide to ditch school and lie to me about it?"

[Gifted]

"We wanted to go to the amusement park." Willow said. "And we're both way ahead in our classes. We've done everything we missed today already, Kailen too. I made sure of it. We just wanted to get out and do something fun together just the two of us."

[Raven]

"And that meant you had to lie about it?" Adam asked.

[Gifted]

"I mean... we did skip... several classes..." Willow mumbled.