Black Sheep
By Misha
Disclaimer- Not mine. I’m just borrowing them for a little while and will return them when I am finished.
Author’s Notes- This is a brief interlude set during the Hana scene in Chapter Four and it touches on my background for Amelia. I was realizing the similarities between Hana and the background I created for Amelia and decided to focus on that.
Rating- G
Summary- Amelia and Hana have a talk about family and expectations.
Words- 605
“You don’t need to teach me Italian,” I told Hana once we were alone after we’d finished our conversation about the language of flowers.
Hana smiled, “it’s ok, Amelia, I don’t mind.”
“I mean, you don’t have to teach me,” I told her, “parlo flentemente italiano”.
Hana stared at me, “you speak Italian?”
“I do,” I confirmed and grinned, “It might be one of the few things I do better than you.”
Hana blushed.
“My mother was born in Italy,” I continued, “she immigrated when she was 10. My Nonna still doesn’t speak a lot of English, so I grew up speaking Italian with her.” I could see Hana looked surprised and I didn’t blame her, it wasn’t something I had mentioned before.
“You don’t talk about your life back home,” Hana commented after a moment. “Or your parents.”
I shrugged, “there’s not much to say.”
“What do they think of all this?” Hana asked curiously.
“Well, they don’t love the stories in the tabloids,” I answered, “but I think mostly, they dismiss it as typical Amy-the-screw-up behavior. Though, my dad emails me once a week to assure me that he’ll buy me a plane ticket home if I want.”
“That’s sweet.”
“It is,” I agreed, “my parents aren’t bad people, we just don’t see eye-to-eye.”
“You called yourself ‘Amy the-screw-up’,” Han said hesitantly. “Is that what they call you?”
“Not to my face,” I said with a laugh, “but I’m the black sheep of the family. I’m the youngest and the only one that hasn’t lived up to their expectations for me, either career-wise or by producing grandchildren. They don’t understand why I’m content with waitressing or my desire to travel. They love me, but they’ve never understood me.”
“Like my parents,” Hana said quietly.
“A bit,” I agreed, “though mine would never threaten to disown me and mine have a lot less money, but yeah, it’s why I can sympathize with your relationship with your parents.”
“You have brothers and sisters?” Hana asked after a moment.
“Three brothers and a sister,” I answered, “a lawyer, a doctor, a small business owner and a teacher. They also have produced five grandchildren between them, with two more on the way and then there’s me.”
“Who could be queen,” Hana pointed out.
I snorted, “I think we both know that won’t happen. Even if we clear my name, I don’t have what it takes to be queen.”
“But Liam…” Hana pointed out hesitantly.
“But Liam,” I agreed and sighed, “one more screw-up. This was supposed to be a fun adventure, I never took it seriously and I never imagined he would ever consider choosing me.”
Hana just nodded. “I guess you can wow the Italian diplomat tomorrow,” she said instead, “since you speak fluent Italian.”
I shook my head, “I’ll say a few phrases and leave it at that.” I would even give Hana the credit.
Hana looked like she wanted to question me, but thankfully she didn’t. A moment later, her flower bloomed, distracting us both.
Afterward, Hana turned to me, “thank you for coming with me tonight, Amelia.”
“Any time,” I assured her, giving her a hug.
“And thank you for telling me about your parents,” she added.
I just nodded and then sighed, “it’s getting late, we should go in.”
She quickly agreed and we went inside, the moment over for now.
It wasn’t that I regretted opening up to Hana, I didn’t, it’s just… I didn’t like talking about myself. One of the things I liked about Cordonia is that no one really asked me that many questions, they accepted what I was willing to give them.
Maybe because everyone here was hiding something and they just expected me to do the same.
- End
