"If'n ya're gettin' this ya've reached Paige. Hopefully ya know who that is or I'm awful sorry ya got the wrong number. Ma, if'n this is ya, we're all doin' well. Jubilee I ain't helpin' with whatever scheme ya came up with so stop textin' me! Leave ya name an' number an' I'll get back ta ya as soon as I can."


[IC or OC contact post]

The Best Day

( Click )

I wonder how much trouble I'd be in if I didn't go home for Thanksgiving.

Going through some severe sibling withdrawal. Who'd have thought?

Just ain't used to not being woken up by the little ones shrieks and screams as they go tearing out of the house.

I'm sure this will subside over time.


An' in other news: co-leading Rogue's team. I'm feeling vaguely grown-up.

Finally comin' on back ta Xavier's.

Sammy an' I'll be back sometime on Sunday if'n we can actually get away from the homestead without the lil ones hangin' on our limbs.

See y'all around when we get back. Er, but I'm seein' Jono first so it may be awhile before I'm outta the room.

Here's how it works:
a. Go to www.flickr.com
b. Type in your answer to the question in the "search" box
c. Use only the first page

( Pictures )

It's a simple stone cross; her father's name and the dates chiseled perfectly into the structure. Paige takes a few moments to clear off the dead flowers one of her siblings probably left a few weeks before. She hasn't been to visit his grave since Thanksgiving. So much has happened since then and she doesn't quite know where to start her tale.

So she tidies the grave and hangs the necklace of daisies she'd strewn together before leaning back on her knees.

"Hey, Pa."

( Hold on, baby, you're losing it//the water's high, you're jumping into it//and letting go... and no one knows that you cry )

"Why are you mad at Sammy?"

Paige looked up from the book she had been trying to read to see her youngest sister leaning on the couch arm to look down at her. "Shouldn't you be helpin' Lewis an' Laura in the garden?"

"Why ain't you answerin' my question?" Hannah sat on the arm and scrunched her nose, a tell tale sign of annoyance.

"Ya should be doin' yer chores." Paige tried to focus on the book but it was hard as Hannah's gaze burrowed a hole in her head.

"He looked real sad when he left ya here," the girl continued and Paige flipped the page. She had no idea what she'd just read. "Big sad eyes an' he kept lookin' back at the attic an' doin' that sighin' thing he does." Hannah imitated him perfectly. "Even his hug was sad."

"Mhmm." She was not going to be guilted by a nine year old.

"He told me to watch out for his sunshine."

Paige frowned at that. She wasn't his sunshine anymore. "I'm fine, Hannah."

Hannah pushed the book down and shook her head. "No you ain't," the girl replied earnestly. "Ya've lost yer shine."

Paige opened her mouth to offer a rebuttal but there wasn't anything she could say to that. "I hope ya find it again, Paigey. An' I hope you an' Sammy stop bein' mad." Hannah skipped away before she was able to reply and Paige stared at the spot where she'd been.

"Out of the mouths of babes," Ma Guthrie commented as she passed by with a load of laundry.

Paige looked away, pretending to focus on her book again and ignored her mother's "stubborn fool" comment. She wasn't ready to admit to herself that they were right. Maybe in a few days but not yet.

samuelguthrie used with LOVE!

You're tied together with a smile
But you're coming undone


"Paige Lucinda Guthrie!"

Paige sighed at the sound of her mother calling her full name. Once Ma added the Lucinda to the mix she knew the older woman meant business.

"You come down outta that attic an' say goodbye to your brother," Lucinda Guthrie ordered and Paige could just picture the scowl on the woman's face with her fists pressed against her hips.

"He an' I already said all we need ta say," Paige called down and didn't budge from her spot on one of the trunks. If he wanted to talk to her then he knew where to find her. "I'm busy."

And she was. Did no one notice that she had been going through the old trunks? It was the only place she could get away from Sam or from anyone and their "Sam this" and "Sam that". She didn't care that she was acting closer to Hannah's age than her own; she wasn't climbing down that ladder to mutter goodbye. She was sick and tired of saying goodbye to Sam. She wasn't doing it anymore and they couldn't force it out of her.

She could hear her mother's annoyed sigh which was followed by Sam's voice. He was saying something to their mother and she picked up on a few words "stubborn", "wildfire", "sister". And then before she knew it there footsteps and Sam was standing before her. Paige wouldn't look up from the old quilt she was observing.

She touched the patchwork squares and feigned an interest in the intricate stitching when they both knew she couldn't sew to save a life. A long awkward moment passed with neither of them saying a word before he bent down and kissed the top of her head. Paige sat frozen and waited until he gave a heavy sigh and was out of the house before she let herself breakdown in tears.

Moments later there were more footsteps before her mother bundled her up in her arms and brushed her hair. "Oh my stubborn lil girl."

Paige simply clung to the woman until she couldn't cry anymore.

If'n ya don't hear from me in a few days it's cause I'm in jail for buryin' Samuel's body in some ditch somewhere.

There’s a kind of emptiness that can fill you.
There’s a kind of hunger that can eat you up.
There’s a cold and darker side of the moonlight.
And there’s a lonely side of love.
-Nickel Creek

Every thing changes and nothing ever stays the same. No matter how hard you try to cling to the past, to the way things used to be, they crumble in your hands like sand on the beach and blow away in the wind. There is always the option of chasing after the sand, of trying to recreate the sandcastle of last year or realizing it will never look exactly as it did back then and finding a way to make a different one and love it as well.

Paige Guthrie isn't a fan of change. She can adapt but she does so stubbornly and clinging onto the past for a little too long before she can let go. It's a hard lesson to learn that the brother you adored is human. He is a fallible as the rest of the world and maybe, just maybe, even more so. It doesn't mean she's stopped loving Sammy but she loves him differently now. There is cautiousness to her love that wasn't there before and it eats her up inside.

Broken promises have led her to not so easily believing what he says now and she hates that. She longs for the days when she could take what Sammy told her at face value. She yearns for when she didn't think each time she saw him would be her last and dreads someone telling her he's off with Cable again. She knows that he's an X-Man now. She knows he wouldn't just up and leave Tabby again. But deep down she's still that scared little girl who lost her father and looked to her older brother for guidance.

Eventually she'll realize she needs to look to herself for that but she's not quite ready for the revelation.

The sun feels different in Westchester. The summer air smells different than back home in Cumberland County as well. The mansion provides the noise Paige is used to with the students unable to return home for the break making their presence known. But it's not quite the same as being woken early by her brothers and sisters or by the smell of pancakes cooking on the stove. Not even on the days when there is the scent of pancakes as she walks into the cafeteria does it ring the same. It's not Lucinda Guthrie who has woken before the sun rises to fix breakfast. There is something that leaves her unsettled and she can't quite figure out what, no matter how hard she tries.

It dawns on her when she's in the middle of a diagnostic report on the Danger Room; fixing a few dents the room has taken during the training exercises from earlier in the day.

She misses home.

( I grew up in a pretty house and I had space to run And I had the best days with you )

The best day
Taylor Swift

( Lyrics )

Paige Guthrie doesn't understand her power. She's read countless textbooks, hundreds of scientific articles provided by Hank and yet she's still no closer to understanding how her body morphs as she tears it away than when she first developed her power. She doesn't know why sometimes if she thinks hard about a particular substance her skin will peel away to reveal it but at other times it will only reveal skin beneath.

She doesn't know why her clothes are lost in the process and why sometimes her transformation will last for hours and yet other times for only a few moments. Her hair can become harder than rock and her body's weight will change depending on the weight of the material she's suddenly become. When she first had her power she'd been able to transform into animals. That was how she'd followed Sam and Tabitha all those years ago and saved X-Force's life.

She hasn't been able to replicate that since then, no matter how hard she tries.

For all the knowledge Paige has gained she still manages to feel like a prisoner in her own skin.

Here's how it works:
1. Go to www.flickr.com
2. Type in your answer to the question in the "search" box
3. Use only the first page
4. Insert the picture into your Blog

( Read more... )