Little Innocent Letti

Little Innocent Letti
Osprey (6 years later)
I sprinted back to my house like my parents had told me to after school was let out. I ran into the living room, quickly hugged my mother and deposited my bookbag beside the coffee table. I spun back to the door and rushed towards it when my father stepped in my way.
“Where are you going in such a hurry? You just got home.”
I stopped, lowering my head. I had learned at any age that any type of attitude would be dominated out of me so it was just easier to submit and pray that I could talk my way into getting what I wanted.
“I wanted to walk Scarlett home,” I said softly.
“Do you have homework?”
“Dad, it’s the first day,” I whined, resisting the urge to stomp my foot.
“Do you have homework?” he repeated.
I groaned. “I do. I’m going to do it. I just wanted to walk her home first.”
My father studied me for a moment before sighing. “If you miss even one homework assignment, I will not allow you to walk her home anymore. Am I understood?”
I nodded enthusiastically. “Very well.”
He moved away from the door. “No arguments when you get home.”
I hugged him before sprinting out of the door. I gave a gleeful shout as I leaped the stairs. I raced towards the elementary school, eager to be there when the bell rang. I arrived three minutes before it sounded, pacing excitedly as the small group of students came out. My pacing got more anxious as people cleared away from the small building until I completely stopped. Miss Winters walked out of the building and I approached her.
“Miss Winters?”
She smiled at me. “Hey, Osprey. What are you doing here?”
“I came to get Scarlett. Is she still in there?”
“Yes, so is Elena.”
I glanced at the door and she laughed. “Go on. Nobody is going to question your presence.”
I walked inside, trying to not appear as chaotic and worried as I felt. I went straight to the fourth-grade classroom where Scarlett’s sobs echoed. I pushed the door open, growling and ready to hurt whoever had made her cry. My sister groaned.
“Oh, great. She’s okay, Os.”
I ignored her to kneel beside Scarlett. “Hey, Letti. What’s wrong?”
She threw herself against me, sobbing louder. “I broke it. I didn’t mean to break it. It was an accident.”
I hugged her. “What broke?”
She leaned back to hold up the leather necklace I had given her. The bear I had spent hours painstakingly carving for her was broken in two. I took it from her hand and curled my fingers around it.
“What happened?,” I asked, trying to keep my anger out of my voice.
“I was sharpening my pencil and it got stuck in the part you turn and got flung across the room.” She looked up into my eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”
I turned my head to look at Elena. “Nobody touched her?”
She rolled her eyes. “No. It was the pencil sharpener.”
My anger died down and I got up before pulling Scarlett to her feet, too. “It’s okay. Come on. Let me take you home. Elena, go home.”
She grumbled as she snatched her bag off a chair. “She’s my family, too, Osprey! You can’t just keep stealing her.”
I bared my teeth at her and she rolled her eyes but stomped out of the room. I led Scarlett to the teacher’s desk to get a tissue. I cleaned her face off before handing it to her for her to blow her nose. She gave me a watery smile.
“Are you mad at me?”
“No. I will make you another one.”
Her smile got wider and just like always I was immediately captivated by her. I leaned toward her before someone clearing their throat made me pull back. Miss Winters crossed her arms over her chest.
“Go on, you two. Go home.”
We walked out of the building and she started to head down the street towards her house when I took her hand. She stopped and turned back to me.
“Osprey? What-”
I nodded toward the forest. “Come on.”
She followed me into it without hesitation. I smiled at her.
“Do you want to ride?” I asked, knowing she could never resist a piggyback ride from Godric.
Her eyes widened and she nodded her head eagerly. I let her hand go to walk into the trees to strip and shift. Godric picked my clothes up to carry them back to her. She put them in her backpack and we lowered ourselves to the ground for her to climb on, which she wasted no time in doing. Once she was situated, we stood back up and began to slowly make our way towards her house, taking the longer, scenic route while she ran her fingers through our fur and twisted it together.
We loved it when she played in our fur. It made us happy in a way that we could never feel with another person. We stopped a few hundred yards from her house. She sighed as she got down. She wrapped her arms around our neck, burying her face in our fur. We turned our head to put it on her shoulder. She ran her fingers down our spine, sighing.
“Are we always going to be friends, ‘Sprey?” she whispered.
We nodded, furious that she would even ask about our “friendship.”
“Vanessa said it was weird. She said that you will get tired of looking out for me.”
I growled and Godric repeated it, making her drawback. Godric grabbed her backpack and stormed off into the trees. We shifted back and I quickly got dressed before stomping back out to her.
“She’s stupid,” I spat. “She is just jealous. Ignore her, Letti. I love you and not her. She is a spoiled brat and wants everyone around her. I don’t want to be around her. Just you.”
She sniffled. “She is mean to me.”
I tugged her closer to hug her. “I’m sorry, Letti,” I murmured softly. “I’ll talk to her.” I sighed. “Come on. I better get you home before our parents come looking for us.”
I led her to her house before giving her another hug. I turned around to leave, needing to let Godric rage for a bit in the woods before I went home. He was begging me to go rip Vanessa’s head off her shoulders for being mean to Letti.
“Osprey?”
I immediately spun back around. “Yeah?”
She ran down the stairs and stood on her tiptoes, using my arm to balance herself as she kissed my cheek.
“Thank you for cheering me up.”
She hurried up the stairs and disappeared into the house while I stood rooted to my spot. Godric hummed happily in my head. All of his anger had disappeared the instant her lips landed on my skin, leaving me feeling… I wasn’t quite sure but it was something I knew I wanted to feel again. I went back into the forest to search for a piece of wood to make another carving for her. I wanted her to kiss me again and I would do anything to get one.