Shades of Cool, Tyler Galpin

SIX.   heart eyes

      Wednesday's plan was for them to attend the Harvest Festival and somehow sneak away from Weems so that Tyler could drive them to the train station. It was times like this that Andy wished she owned more clothing that wasn't black. "I know black is your signature color, but. . ." Kennedy had trailed as she walked over to her closet. She pulled out a dark purple sweater. "You would look amazing in purple. Cause I do."

Now, she stood with the girls at the Harvest Festival, watching Tyler argue with his dad from afar. Andy twisted the ring on her finger, feeling so many nerves that she began to sweat.

Wednesday eyed her. "You're staring."

"We're all staring," she responded quickly, tearing her eyes away from Tyler.

Kennedy, towering over them all, smirked. "Yeah, but not like you are. You totally like him."

"I don't even know him. I just know he makes really good hot chocolate."

"Are you sure you can trust that normie?" Enid questioned, having expressed her deep concerns about the plan since arriving at the festival.

"I trust that I can handle myself," answered Wednesday, not caring at all.

"Well, if he tries anything, come tell me. I'm almost taller than him so I can certainly rip him to shreds," Kennedy threatened.

Enid stood in front of the sisters. "Well, good luck and safe travels." She opened her arms for a hug and Wednesday backed up, avoiding the embrace. "Still not a hugger. Got it." She turned to Andy. "Andy?"

Awkwardly, Andy gave in and opened her arms slightly. Enid smiled and hugged her tightly, almost knocking her over.

Kennedy peered down at Wednesday. "It was good to meet you, Addams. Good luck out there," she proclaimed and held out her hand.

Wednesday grimaced the outstretched hand.

"Not even a hug? Stingy."

Kennedy and Enid walked away to enjoy the festival. Wednesday watched them go. "I don't know which one of them is worse."

Andy rolled her eyes. "You're trying to tell me you don't think they're nice?"

"I think they're too nice. It disgusts me. Come on, we have to get away from Weems."

When she looked over her shoulder, Andy spotted Weems watching them from the bench. She quickly followed her sister. She spotted one of the balloon popping games. "Wanna try?"

Instead of answering, Wednesday picked up a dart and threw it directly into a balloon, popping it. She continued to pop them until they were almost all gone.

Xavier approached them at the booth. "Jeez, you get any better at this, you'll be taking home a whole pack."

Wednesday kept her eyes on the game. "Pandas don't travel in packs. They prefer solitude."

He nodded at her dismissiveness. "All right. Subtle hint taken."

"Well, I for one love pandas," Andy stated and picked up a dart. She threw it into one of the balloons. "My favorite animal, actually."

The boy hummed. "Why? Cause they're black and white?" He teased.

"No. They prefer to be alone. They enjoy their freedom. I can somehow relate to that." Andy threw the final dart and popped the last balloon. She smiled sheepishly.

"Jesus." Xavier exhaled, his eyes widening by how both of them managed to pop all of the balloons.

"You should know Andy and I are waiting for someone,"  Wednesday informed when she noticed that he wasn't going to leave.

His face fell. "Oh yeah, who's the lucky guy. . . or girl?"

"What does it matter to you?"

Andy looked between them and grinned when the man working the booth handed her the very large panda.

Xavier looked like he was going to respond but his mouth closed when he saw Tyler walk up to them. "Didn't mean to interrupt."

She immediately looked his way.

"You're not," Xavier denied bitterly, shooting Wednesday a final look before walking away.

Uncomfortable, Tyler turned to the sisters. "This is going to be trickier than I thought. Dad hit me with a curfew. We need to go if I'm gonna make it back in time."

"I've got some dead weight I need to lose first," Wednesday explained, looked over at Weems. She turned to Andy. "Meet me behind the parking lot when the fireworks start." Her gaze cut to Tyler. "Take him with you."

Feeling another round of nerves, she nodded. "Okay. Be careful."

Wednesday fled and she and Tyler took the long way, walking behind the one of carnival games to avoid Weems seeing them. Tyler was holding his breath, his hands stuffed in his pockets and he eyed the massive panda bear in her arms. "Jesus, that thing's about as big as you are," he said with a grin.

Andy laughed. "Yeah, I have pretty good aim."

"Do you go to the fair a lot?"

She shook her head. "No. When I was born, Wednesday tried taking my head off with a flaming arrow so I learned how to shoot incase she ever tries to do it again. It comes it handy."

Tyler's face stilled into a disturbed expression. "Why would she do that?"

Andy shrugged. "I dunno. She believed that when a new baby's born, another sibling has to die, and our brother wasn't born yet, so she tried to kill me. Turns out she was wrong. I'm still alive somehow."

He blinked multiple times. "Wow. Well, I'm glad you are."

She glanced up at him and saw that he was smiling at her. "I don't think I've seen that yet."

"S-Seen what?"

"That smile."

Andy didn't realize she was even smiling until he pointed it out. She quickly looked down at her shoes, feeling the expression increase. The two of them stood in the parking lot and waited for Wednesday. "Oh, here," Andy remembered and held out the giant panda. "For you."

Tyler looked between her and the stuffed animal. "You won this for me?"

"Well, I wasn't expecting to win it, but, think of it as. . .a token of my appreciation," she responded with a slight smile.

He chuckled. "What am I gonna do with a panda?"

Andy shrugged. "I dunno. Keep it as a reminder of the scary goth girl with a weird family that you helped escape from the school of freaks."

Tyler took the stuffed bear from her. "I don't think you're scary," he admitted. "Your sister, maybe, but there's something different about you,"

Her face fell and Andy looked down at her shoes again. She was hard to people thinking that she was different from other people, that she would never fit in with normal society. "A bad different?"

"No."

Andy looked back up and let his soft eyes. The difference colored lights reflected off his blush green irises. The shade of blue stuck out the most to her. They were bright, brighter than the festival lights, and then fireworks went off in the sky above them, the multicolors shining on his face. He had smile lines that made his eyes crinkle. Andy never noticed things like this about a person before.

Tyler pointed to her purple sweater. "I like this color on you. It suits you."

Thank you, Kennedy Eden.

Wednesday finally joined them, interrupted the moment.  "There you guys are."

Andy tore her eyes away from Tyler and blinked back into reality. "Right, yeah. Here we are," she stammered,

Tyler frowned slightly. "Hey, before you guys leave, I wanted to give you this." He moved the panda to one arm and held up a large file in the other. He gave it to Andy. "It's your dad's police file from when he was at Nevermore. I think it's the reason my dad hates him," he explained to them both.

Wednesday peered over her sister's shoulder and they read the file. A frown formed on Andy's lips.

"You okay?" Tyler asked, noticing her fallen face.

"Yeah, yeah, we're fine."

"Our train leaves in an hour. We're burning moonlight."  Wednesday stated and the girls moved past him.

Tyler quickly followed the sisters. "Right. Right."

Andy saw the same boys from the coffee shop appear with hats in their hands. She cursed to herself. Seeing them as well, Tyler's eyes went wide and he grabbed her arm, dropping the panda on the ground. "Hey, Andy, come on. Andy!"

She grabbed Wednesday and pulled her with them. "We can lose them in the crowd!" Tyler exclaimed.

Andy sprinted through the crowd of people trying to lose the boys off her trail. When she looked over her shoulder to see if they were coming, she felt Wednesday bump into her they both fell to the ground, and Andy was sucked into a vision.

The first thing she saw was book. Then she saw an eye and the wings of a raven. There was a large fire appeared in what looked like to be the quad at Nevermore. Then a raven cawed and there was an image of a skull. Finally, Andy saw Rowan on the ground, covered in blood and screaming in pain.

"ANDY!"

The sisters snapped out of the conjoined vision. Andy looked over and saw Rowan standing there, but then he panicked at the sight of the sisters and ran into the woods.

"Andy, Wednesday, we need to go—"

Tyler was ignored as Wednesday and Andy took off into the woods after Rowan.

"Guys!"

"Rowan, come back!" Wednesday shouted.

"Did you see it, too?" Andy questioned, her breathing staggered.

Her sister nodded. "I did."

With the fireworks going off in the air, they gained on Rowan's trail. "Rowan, wait!"

"What do you want? Why are you following me?" Rowan yelled.

Andy stuck out her hand with caution. "We just want to talk,"

"I don't have time to explain, but you're in danger,"  added Wednesday.

She didn't know what she expected his reply to be. Andy thought he would be scared, or freaked out, or even shed a tear. But no, he was stoic until suddenly, he started to laugh. "I think you've got in backwards."

Before Andy could say anything, she was suddenly thrown back into a tree. Her back hit against the bark and she groaned in pain. "What the hell!"

Rowan held them both against the tree. His eyes focused on Wednesday. "You're the one who's in danger."

"What are you doing?" Wednesday grunted.

"Saving everyone from you. I have to kill you."

"I'm going to kill your if you don't let us down!" Andy shouted.

Wednesday's eyes went wide. "The gargoyle. That was you?"

Rowan nodded. "Yeah."

"It's always the quiet ones."

Andy was utterly confused. "What?"

A piece of paper floated out of Rowan's pocket and floated to Wednesday. "The girl in the picture. That's you."

Her eyes widened in disbelief. "You want to kill me because of some picture?"

"My mother drew that picture 25 years ago when she was a student at Nevermore. She was a powerful seer." His eyes filled with tears. "Told me about it before she died."

"Rowan, put me down!"

"No!  My mother said it was my destiny to stop this girl if she ever came to Nevermore, because she will destroy the school and everyone in it," he shouted and pushed Wednesday farther into the tree, making her grunt. "Now it seems there's two of you for me to get rid of."

When he saw that Andy wasn't there next to her, his face dropped. "What? W-Where did she go?" He stuttered. "Where did she go!"

There was a popping noise and Rowan turned around, Andy standing there with a vicious glare. "I said let her go!" She screamed and shoved him, causing him to lose concentration and Wednesday fell to the ground.

She groaned and lifted her head. Her eyes grew wide again when she saw a large creatures coming up behind them. "Andy, look out!"

Before she could process, Andy screamed when Rowan suddenly picked up by his jacket. She fell backwards and immediately scrambled back. What she saw in front of her was a large monster with very wide eyes. It slung Rowan to the ground and started tearing through his body. The scream was so familiar and Andy realized it was from her vision. The screams, the blood spatter, and the sound of ripping flesh.  She watched the scene in pure horror. The monster's long claws slashed through Rowan and it turned its head around to the girl's, growling before running away in the woods.

Wednesday frantically crawled to her sister. "Andy! Andy, are you okay?"

Andy was shaking like a leaf and she could form words. Her eyes stayed on a now dead Rowan and she wondered how the hell they were going to explain this to people.