Little Picnic Extravaganza 2012, Amy, Daisy, Gus?, Fred?

[SARA BETHANY LITTLE]

[Hi, so I was meant to be starting a thread for Amy and Sara, but then Sara insisted it was time for a family outing so this happened. However, seen as I didn't ask you all if you wanted a thread, you don't have to join in with it XD]

If there was one thing that Sara liked about summer it was that it opened up a whole host of new places that were available to go out to as a family. She knew it could be seen as lame, especially being the teenager she was, to enjoy the extra time spent with the family as a whole - and she was certain that sometimes her sisters didn't appreciate the time as much as her - but she didn't feel a reason to feel ashamed about it. In winter, and pretty much any time it couldn't be counted on to be dry, they were more or less consigned to spending time together in the house or perhaps for an outing to the diner, though they didn't do that too much; maybe when their dad got home from a long business trip, provided they had the funds they would visit the town's nice restaurant or see what was on at the community theatre. However, once summer rolled round it opened up the whole outdoors to them. Not that Sara was really an outdoorsy kind of girl in the least, but she did enjoy a good picnic.

Almost every year the Little family chose a Saturday afternoon to pack up a picnic hamper and make their way into a part of the forest that had enough clear ground but also shade to happily spend a few hours there. Sara always looked forward to these family picnics and as such it was one of the only times that she stepped forward to help with the cooking. Not that she tried to shirk any kind of responsibility in that regard on a normal basis, but she realised that her talents did not lie in making food. However, mixing some salad, cutting things up into portions and making sure that there was enough crockery to go around was something she could definitely do. Thus, after having brought the picnic blanket out of the under-stairs cupboard, she trotted upstairs to dress for the weather, opting for rarely seen shorts - it wasn't as if her family didn't know of her bruising tendency so it didn't matter.

It didn't take them long to wander out together, Sara hanging behind a little bit as she watched everyone chatting away as they walked. She honestly didn't mind being the proverbial wallflower in any given situation, so long as she could see that everyone else was happy and having a good time. Plus once they were all settled together and the food was out she would open up a bit more. Thus once they reached a nice spot just into the edge of the forest, where the sun could still penetrate the canopy above but where the trees still provided appropriate shade and coolness, she was quite eager to get everything set up. "Hey, Amy - throw me the corner of the blanket and we can set it down," she called out to her twin, having already kicked some debris away from the area. "Here'll be okay, right?"

[MEGAN DAISY LITTLE]

Daisy was not an outdoorsy girl. She had never been one to climb trees or get her clothes dirty. When she'd been little, her mother had never bothered to split her wardrobe into school clothes that were to be kept nice and play clothes that were okay to get messy because the play clothes never got ruined. She'd been the sort of child who mostly played indoors with dolls rather than making mudpies outside- the kind that, to get to play outside needed to be locked out- not that it had ever happened, and Daisy was always a little horrified when she heard people say their parents did that.

Needless to say that a picnic in the middle of the woods with her family wasn't exactly Daisy's dream of a day. No, it wasn't anything against her family at all. She wouldn't have even bothered going if it weren't for her family... it didn't meant that she never attempted to encourage her family to do something else together, though. There had been many suggestions of maybe a nice family meal in a restaurant- to no avail. No matter, it was just one day and if everyone else enjoyed being "one with nature" or whatever, she wouldn't complain (okay, she had complained quite a bit as a teenager, but was over it, now). Even if she wasn't that helpful at tidying up the area before they set the blanket down, she'd thought she'd done her share by helping with the cooking and some baking and keeping the kitchen at home clean. She'd worn flat shoes and wasn't complaining, even if this wasn't exactly her ideal.

Truth be told, her head wasn't all there... she might have been thinking of someone else- a certain young man who she apparently was greatly talented at running into. She knew it was a bit silly to be so concerned with someone, but... well, why not? It wasn't like she was overly busy or preoccupied with something someone else. She could like someone. Her sister's voice caught her attention and she looked over, even though she was mostly just avoiding brushing up against anything to avoid getting some aspect of nature on her dress and didn't plan to go near the ground until there was a blanket down to keep her away from the dirt. "Here should be fine, shady enough," she contributed.

[AMANDA JEAN LITTLE]

Amy thought she had been very sensible when she’d gotten dressed that morning. She didn’t exactly look like the type to enjoy running around outside, but was actually more happy to be running around outside than most. She had always loved playing in the snow when she was younger, and in a way she still did. Okay so she wouldn’t go jumping around and throwing snow balls at her sisters when they poked their noses out the door anymore, but she still enjoyed sitting in the window and drawing, looking at the snow falling. It had become vastly more romantic with snow as she’d gotten older, and even during the fall when she leaves fell. But during summer, oh the summers were made to be spent outside. And she didn’t mind one bit. Now, Amy would however be the first to admit she wasn’t crazy about prancing around the forest. Well, if she was alone, who could blame her, right? But today she was far from alone, and the virtual sea of green over her head, the leaves making a tight knit golden green ceiling, she smiled to herself. She knew it didn’t turn out well in pictures, or she would have photographed the hell out of it, to be honest. She loved the way the green lit up, how it served as a shield from the sun, but still let through rays that seemed to make the Kansas forest seem so much more… magical. Snapping out of her daydream of far off adventures where thieves would pop out from behind the trees, whisk her off to some far off little nest and where she’d fall head over heals in love – okay, so maybe she’d been reading a few too many of their mother’s romance novels, so sue her. She looked at Sara, and offered a small smile, biting her bottom lip as she nodded. Of course, she could do that. Pulling out the blanket and unfolding it as best she could, she tossed the other end to her twin. ”This was a good idea,” she smiled, feeling a little more relaxed than she did at home. She supposed it could be the ceiling of green, or the lack of sounds from roads and the, oh so bustling metropolis that was Hollow’s End’s residential area. Because there was such heavy traffic all the time. The blanket flat on the ground, Amy slipped her shoes off and stepped onto the blanket to make sure it was safe to sit on, no stones or other nonsense that had been hiding when Sara cleared the area. ”Yup, we’re good. Now, who’s got the cakes and cookies?” she grinned. Ever impatient, she was. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -TAG: Everyone in this thread? (:NOTES: none WORDS: 453 OUTFIT: clicky

[FREDERICK LAURENCE MOFFAT]

Family gatherings were something that weren't really a part of Fred's life when he was growing up. Oh, sure, he had gone to a few family reunions, but those were more or less awful. They were always in boring locations in the middle of nowhere (and Fred lived in Kansas so it wasn't like it was that hard to find a place that would be mildly interesting to him), and it always seemed that he was the only one under the age of 60 there. And then they would always ask him about how school was going and whether he was excited to take over the family business and he'd have to say something nice and polite, because if he said what he wanted to and told them to go to hell, he'd be in serious trouble, and he didn't really want that. So, really, those only counted as family gatherings if a group of stuffy old men tasting expensive wines but not drinking enough for anything to be interesting counted as a party.

And then there were the Littles. Now, of course, the Littles weren't actually his family (and if they were, that would be slightly problematic given that he was kind of in love with Gus), but a lot of the time they felt like they were. He came close to spending more time at their house than at his own house, and he was rarely seen without one of them (well, without Gus, really). So it was really no surprise that he had been invited to their family picnic. Okay, maybe he hadn't actually been invited, but they had mentioned that they were having a family picnic when he was at their house last night, and no one had complained when he just happened to show up at their house as they were leaving, so he figured that was as good as an invitation.

"Yeah, food is good," Fred said as some of the girls laid out a picnic blanket. He wasn't helping, but the truth was that he would probably hurt more than he would help, given his idea of organization. If he were in charge, he'd probably wind up spilling mustard on a hornets' nest and having to run away from millions of angry hornets. Which, of course, would make for some great stories, but it probably wasn't exactly what the Littles were looking for.

[JOANNA AUGUST LITTLE]

Gus, for one, loved the annual Little family picnic. Maybe as much as Sara. Unlike Daisy, in fact, when they were children, it was possibly the very opposite of Daisy, Gus was the type that liked to be outside, as often as possible. She was in fact, the child that would practically have to be retrieved from her highest perch yet in a tree that she was pretending was a pirate ship before she could be dragged back inside. Often when she felt that need to write and the Little house was just too crazy, she grabbed her notebook and made off for the Hollow's End woods. But she didn't have to have the outdoors to herself, and as much as her family could drive her crazy, they were her family, and she loved them. So even at seventeen, when it wasn't considered cool to enjoy spending time with family and all that, she always looked forward to the picnic.

And then there was Fred, whom she didn't exactly think of like a brother, like she might have when she initially became friends with him (mostly out of desperation, since she had never had a brother), but he was definitely part of the family. So she wasn't surprised to see him show up when they were about to leave for the picnic that day, and she certainly wasn't disappointed. But of course, everyone expected her to be pleased, he was her best friend after all, from whom she was basically inseparable. Fortunately, her sisters seemed to mind very little themselves, because if he hadn't, it wouldn't have really felt like a Little family picnic if not.

Gus stayed out of most of the food preparations. Unlike Sara, she was a little lazy when it came to things like that, and she was also a little messy. Even if it was just throwing things together or cutting sandwiches up, Gus was sure she would do it wrong. Not that it mattered, it was all the same when it was eaten, but some people were fussy about that. She had the distinction of choosing the blanket, her favorite maroon blanket, as that deep shade of red was her favorite. Okay, not a light, summery color, but this was their picnic, after all. And she was bringing her fantastic company. Someone to lightly tease Daisy about spending any substantial amount of time outdoors while still happy that her older sister had come anyway. Okay, so she wasn't much help at all. But they loved her, anyway.

When they made it to the edge of the woods and Sara asked if it was a good spot, Gus appraised it, although these were the same woods as ever. It was a different spot, and she nodded. "This works." Usually, she would submerse herself in the woods a bit more, but she realized that this wasn't just her, and picnics in too much shade weren't really what people conventionally imagined as picnics. She sat down before the blanket was laid down, only to scoot onto it when she realized her slip-up. She rested her palms on her knees and took a breath, inahling the fresh air and the smell of the food prepared. "It's been way too long," she said. That was the funny contradiction about Gus. She was obnoxious and self-centered sometimes, but very sentimental. She couldn't stand the thought of spending the rest of her life in Hollow's End, but she couldn't imagine life without the four around her. Maybe she could take them with her after Sara and Amy graduated...but that would be selfish, she supposed.

The other girls started to set the food out, and Gus supposed she should help with that, given her refusal to help in the kitchen. She toppled over a larger container in the process, but realized that, fortunately, it was sandwiches and easily righted. At Fred's comment, she grinned and gave up the attempts at organization. "Okay, I think it's about time to start eating." She opened the sandwich container and took the top sandwich, biting in to make it official. "Anyone else?"

[words] 686
[notes] it's 5:41 so I apologize here

[SARA BETHANY LITTLE]

As much as a dork as it made her, Sara had a perma-smile spread across her face as the family stepped out together into the woods to try to find a good spot to have their picnic. In fact, that same smile had been tattooed on to her face since she had woken up early that morning to help Daisy prep the food despite her relative ineptitude compared to her eldest sister. She didn't really care, though, these were her favourite people - down to Gus' attraction to the deep-coloured winter-y picnic blanket and Amy's will to skip all the main part of the picnic and start with the cookies and baked goods they had earmarked for dessert. Perhaps they were hardly the most conventional of families and they each were less than conventional people, but she loved them and how they were together all the same. Fred included. Even though she maybe had the least contact with Gus' best friend, it seemed like he had been around forever to the point where their little motley crew looked strange with his masculine presence. And more kudos to him for dealing with all of them at once.

She nodded as various of her sisters commended her choice to set everything down and worked with her twin to lay the blanket down. When she selected her place on it to sit down, she chose one of the shadier parts and slipped off her shoes. "Amy!" she exclaimed, giggling. "If you don't at least eat something with one vegetable in it mom's not going to let us out again." Well, that was hardly true, but she figured everyone here would know that without her explaining. She looked at Gus and nodded enthusiastically, however. "Yes please! I'll take one of the sandwiches - could you pass them over?"

Picking up a finger sandwich for herself, she nibbled at the edge of it and smiled round the little circle. She noticed that her eldest sister looked a bit ... elsewhere, and nudged her knee. "Hey, you okay?" she asked. "This isn't really your thing, is it? But the food is yummy!"