163Mackenzie Isobel McDaniel wasn't exactly a force to be reckoned with. She was short and slight, standing at only five feet and one inch, and weighing it at one-hundred pounds, soaking wet, wearing all denim. With her long, unruly curly red hair and her almond-shaped, sleepy clear blue eyes that hid behind glasses, pale skin and heart-shaped face, she was the epitome of Scottish. Long ago, her ancestors had been mighty warriors, and the mere mention of the McDaniel clan struck fear in the hearts of men all over Scotland. And Mackenzie, affectionately known as Mouse, could see where the legends could have most certainly be true, if the statures of the majority of her family -women included - had anything to say about it. Sweet, quiet, little Mouse was the complete and polar opposite of them. In fact, every single member of her family seemed to tower over her, and some had biceps that were twice her size. She wasn't competitive in the least, and also unlike her loud and boisterous family, she would rather sit at home and read than anything else.
Her family had moved to Boston ages ago, before even her grandfather was born, and had since become very prominent in both Boston as a whole, and in their Scottish community. Heritage and culture was very big part of their family life, but that wasn't to say that they hadn't changed at all. The biggest change came the day that little Mackenzie, at age fourteen, managed to yell above everyone's fun and merriment, to tell them that she was gay. At first they thought that it was a joke, but their little Mouse wasn't really a joker, and neither would she call so much attention upon herself if she didn't absolutely have to. Her grandfather, a tall man by the name of Joe, told everyone that they'd better except her - or he would kick their ass to kingdom come. And then the night went on like nothing had happened, and the smallest member of the McDaniel family found herself exhausted. She had been worrying and fussing about when and where she would tell everyone, and when it passed, she promptly went upstairs to her room and fell asleep.
She had no strength in her slim, slight figure, nor did she have a particularly harsh gaze that caused one to quiver in their boots. But she had a calming affect to the people that knew her. Her voice was soft and gentle; her father told her that she could coax bees to give up their honey if she wanted to. So, no, Mackenzie Isobel McDaniel was not a force to be reckoned with, but gentle little Mouse could tame dragons with the sound of her voice, or so said the patriarchs of her family.
"Mack! Kenzie! Mouse! Wait up!"
Mackenzie turned to the breathless voice that called out the variations of her name, and a smile spread across her face when she saw that it was her best friend, Samantha Turner. "Hi Sam!" she greeted warmly, just as Sam's body came to a stop, and her long pink hair fell into her face.
"Hi Sam. Hi Sam?! I chase you down three whole blocks and all I get is 'hi Sam'? That's friendship for you," the slightly older, and definitely taller girl crossed her arms and did her very best to look annoyed at her redheaded best friend.
"Why were you chasing me?" Mackenzie asked, somewhat confused at her friend.
"'Cause I love ya. And I haven't seen ya in a few days."
"Oh. Okay." She blinked, "How did you even know where to find me?"
"You've got like ten brothers," Sam pointed out, "Who are all very protective of you."
"Right, of course."
"And where else would you be on a Friday afternoon, but going to your favorite coffee shop/book store?"
Mackenzie turned to Sam with wide eyes, "Am I that predictable?"
"No, honey bunches, I just know you," Sam told her, but both girls knew that Mackenzie had a routine, and that she stuck to it. She was, as the redhead had said, very predictable. "Come on, I'll buy you some coffee, and you can read to your heart's content."
"You don't have plans?" Mackenzie asked as she went inside the coffee shop. It practically went without saying that Friday nights were reserved for Sam and her boyfriend Trent, and they always had their date night planned.
"Ah, no," the blonde said, the two ordered their coffee, and then stepped back to wait, "That's part of the reason that I chased you down. Trent and I broke up yesterday."
"What? Why?" The thought was foreign to Mackenzie. Trent and Sam had been together since eighth grade, and they had always been nearly inseparable. Mackenzie had been absolutely sure that they would get married some day.
"Yeah, uhm, I've kind of been feeling like it's been over for a while. And so I broke up with him."
"Oh, Sammy," the younger girl hugged her, "I'm sorry."
Samantha wasn't the sit-around-and-cry type, so she laughed and gently hugged her friend back, "Thanks, Kenz, but it's really alright. Now I can focus on finding you a girlfriend!" she grinned.
"I don't need a girlfriend." Mackenzie's voice was quiet as she spoke to Sam, she was sincere. She wasn't lonely, she didn't have a deep longing for a significant other, and she almost didn't want to put anyone through the craziness that was her family. She loved them dearly, but it would take a special kind of person to be able to handle them on any level.
"I know you don't need one, but I want you to be happy. You're looking far too forlorn these days." Same stepped up to the counter and paid the barrister, took the coffees, and handed the appropriate one to her friend, "I know that all you need is your books, but at the end of the day, you can't curl up in bed next to them."
"I wouldn't curl up in bed with a girlfriend even if I had one,"
"Oh come on! You're telling me that if you were to get a girlfriend, and you fell in love with you, that you wouldn't sleep with her?"
"Have you met my family, Sam? They would kill me, and her, if they found out that we slept together."
"Oh, yes, because your brothers are innocent virgins." the girl with pink hair rolled her eyes.
"That's different."
"Why? Because you're female?"
"No! Because I'm...well..." Mackenzie sighed and brushed a curl out of her eyes, "Because I'm me."
"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life, Mackenzie! What, little, wide-eyed, innocent you shouldn't have sex, ever? Are they afraid someone's going to break you? And really, even if..."
Samantha went on a rant then, but Mackenzie had stopped listening. It wasn't that she couldn't sleep with someone, because she was probably very capable of it, she really just didn't want to. She had never been in love, and only ever been mildly interested in someone; it was certainly never enough to make her consider sleeping with them. And it wasn't even that her brothers and father would be upset, so much as she knew how much they wanted to protect her, and she really didn't want to put someone through that - because she knew her family, and if she started dating someone, then every bad mood, every tear would immediately be their fault, no matter what. Her family was loud and crazy, but they were also extremely protective of the littlest member of their clan. She didn't think that any of them would be dumb enough to ever kill anyone, but if they thought that someone had hurt little Mackenzie, then there wouldn't be a place that they could hide and not be found by some member of the McDaniel family.
"Yoo-hoo, earth to Kenzie."
The younger girl blinked and her thoughts came back to the girl sitting across from her, "Sorry, what?"
Samantha looked exasperated, "Did you hear anything I said?"
"Uh, no. Not really. But I have a feeling that it was about how my family needed to start treating me like a grown up."
"Something like that," Sam sighed, "It's just not fair, you know? You're a senior in high school, you're almost eighteen, you're going off to college soon."
"Sammy, stop, okay? There isn't anything wrong with the way my family treats me."
"Oh, yeah, sure. Except, you know, everything."
The redhead sighed and rubbed her eyes under her glasses, "Sam..."
"Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. I'll stop." She sighed.
"Thank you," Mackenzie breathed a sigh of relief. Honestly, she had no idea what had gotten into Sam; the older girl had never been so annoyed with the McDaniel family's delicate treatment of their youngest member. Sure, Mackenzie had expressed annoyance a few times, but it wasn't because she thought they were treating her badly. The truth was that Mackenzie didn't mind the protective treatment of her family. Sometimes they went overboard, but it didn't matter. They loved her, they wanted her to be safe and happy. That was what Mackenzie cared about.
The two sat in complete silence for almost five minutes; neither one new how to start another conversation. Luckily, fate was on their side, so they didn't need to come up with something else to talk about.
"Holy..crap. Kenz, turn around." She blinked but did as she was told, and at first, she didn't know what she was looking at. Not until Sam spoke again, anyway. "She's hot. I think I might be gay."
Mackenzie's eyes fell on the object of Sam's sudden switch of sexual preferences. She was too far away to make out anything but the fact that the girl couldn't have been older than nineteen, that she was wearing all leather, holding a motorcycle helmet under her arm, and that she was soaking wet. "She's riding a motorcycle in the rain. That's very impractical." And with that, Mackenzie pulled a book out of her bag and spun back around in her chair, and began to read.
A/N:
Hi everyone! I'm super excited about this story! :D And the good news is that with the muse for this stories comes muse for most of my other stories. (: So stay tuned. I know I polled everyone and asked what they would be most interested in reading, but...crazy as this sounds, I decided to go with the least voted for. I'm a sucker for an underdog.
Just so we're clear, this IS a lesbian romance story. If you don't like it, then obviously you don't have to read it. I'm not going to put a gun to your head or nail your foot to the floor, or even shove this down your throat. However, I would like to say that you should give it a chance! You never know, you might like it. That's all for now, my lovelies. I'll be seeing you very soon. (And hopefully replying to some reviews? Yes? I thought so.) Enjoy.
~Emma