[one]

Up to the age of twenty-one, Maggie had never thought about having kids.

Fresh out of university with a nursing degree and three years worth of debt, she had no intentions of settling down but when her innocent nine-year old niece arrived on her doorstep, everything changed. It was in the middle of night, Indiana stood at her doorstep, alone, with a tattered teddy bear in one hand and a faded pink duffel bag in the other. Her eyes were filled with unshed tears, and Maggie, without hesitation, took her in.

Ten years later, she worked hard to become a senior nurse at the local hospital and just last year managed to make a down payment for the house she had been eyeing for years. Indiana grew up quietly, choosing to remain in her room for most of the day, even for her birthday. The only time Maggie had managed to coax a smile out of her was when she had gifted her with a kitten for her fourteen birthdays. Even that ended up with Indiana, quickly thanking her aunt and taking the kitten into her room.

Maggie had thought that her niece would grow out of being shy, that it was just the awkward transition to becoming a teenager but when Indiana reached the age of sixteen and still hadn't brought a single friend over, she started to feel anxious. One day, while grocery shopping, she ran into one of Indiana's gym teacher. The conversation, which started purely by sheer coincidence led to him praising Indiana's athletic skill and how she should join the basketball team. Maggie rushed home that day, forgetting most of her groceries and quickly signed up her niece for the basketball team. It was a surprisingly easy process, all she had to do was fill in and sent if off. Within a matter of weeks, Maggie was standing by the benches cheering on her niece who was dominating the court.

For a while, Maggie felt reassured, her niece was finally putting herself out there. Sure, she didn't go to any of the parties and she still hadn't brought over a friend, but she didn't spend her days locked in her room anymore. Indiana had quickly become the star basketball player, there was even talks about a school sponsorship but when she reached the age of eighteen, she quit with the simple explanation of:

"I don't like it anymore," she shrugged her shoulders, picked her Nancy, her kitten and went upstairs to her room,

Maggie wanted to ask why but she stayed quiet, unsure whether it was her place to push her. She had always felt awkward with Indiana, they both knew that she wasn't her mother and she never set out to fill in that role. For the rest of Indiana's college years, she studied hard and manage to get into University but just like what happened with the basketball team, she rejected it.

This was no longer Indiana being a shy or an awkward transition, Maggie was beginning to worry that Indiana would spend the rest of her life locking herself away from, not just her aunt but from everyone. Just as she was beginning to lose hope, Maggie noticed a poster on the Hospital bulletin board, Summer Volunteers, she couldn't grab the pen fast enough, her niece was on the top of that list.

A few months later, they both stood in front of the receptionist desk.

Maggie was beaming while Indiana nervously fiddled with her fingers, and every so often adjusting her hair clip.

"Morning Maggie," the receptionist absently welcomed with a half-smile while engrossed on her computer, her name tag read Sarah.

"Morning," Maggie chirped with a rather crazy, borderline deranged smile which caught Sarah's attention.

She looked between the two, slightly confused and raised an eyebrow at Maggie.

"My niece," Maggie quickly said, Indiana simply gave a quick smile but made no move to introduce herself, "Indiana," her aunt quickly added.

Bornnorth was a small town, everyone knew everyone, but no one seemed to know Indiana. Sure, they knew how she looked like and that Maggie was her aunt, but no one knew her story. How she ended up with Maggie, where her parents are or why she hardly hung out with kids her own age. She was a complete mystery to the town. Despite the town being so small, Sarah hadn't had the chance to formally meet Indiana, she had seen her in passing when grocery shopping, but she never noticed how similar they both looked. She was slightly taken back, Indiana looked like a younger version of her aunt. They both had dark brown eyes, dark curly hair which Indiana had tied up in a ponytail while Maggie curls were unkept and messy.

Despite their similarities, Sarah couldn't help but noticed how different they were, Maggie stood smiling while Indiana had her eyes cast down, intently looking at a random mark on the desk. If they didn't look so similar, it would have been rather hard to believe that they were related.

"You signed up as a volunteer, didn't you?"

Indiana, still staring at the dent on the desk had no intentions of replying but when her aunt pinched her side, she quickly nodded and gave Maggie a quick glare, to which she pointedly ignored.

"Awesome," Sarah clapped her hands, pushed her chair back and walked around her desk, "follow me dear."

"Save me," Indiana muttered but Maggie ignored her and instead pushed her in the direction of where Sarah had walked off to. She did say something along the lines of "have fun" before running off for her shift.

Indiana sighed and caught up with Sarah's fast strides. They walked in silence, Indiana preferred it, she had always hated small talk.

"So," Indiana suppressed a groan and forced a smile at Sarah, "there's another volunteer too."

"Really?"

Volunteering was a great thing to do, Indiana understood that but who in their right mind would willingly volunteer their summer away at a hospital?

"Yeah," she sent Indiana a rather odd look, "a guy around your age."

"Really?"

Indiana knew she was becoming a parrot, but she really couldn't believe it.

"Quite charming," another odd look but this time complimented with an unusual smile, "and rather cute."

At that moment, it dawned on her, Sarah was setting her up. Indiana had multiple refusals at the tip of her tongue but all that came out was, "oh."

Followed by awkward silence. Indiana didn't offer to say anything else and Sarah didn't know what else to say to start a conversation. They walked the rest of the way in uncomfortable silence, Sarah was finding even harder to believe that Maggie was her aunt. Her aunt would always find ways to start a conversation, no wonder so many of the doctors had a slight crush on her but Indiana, preferred the silence.

"So," Sarah stopped at a closed door which read wonderland, "this is where you will be."

"Wonderland?"

"It's where the kids play."

"Kids?"

Indiana's smile faltered, she hated kids.

"That's why you're here?"

She looked at Indiana warily, half wondering how the cheerful, conversationalist Maggie was her aunt and the other half wondering how Maggie had managed to drag her all the way here.

"Right," Indiana curtly nodded and moved to the open the door.

A few second of the door open, they both heard a mixture of screams and laughter along with some worrying shrieks. She instantly closed it and looked at Sarah who just sent her a smile and shrugged.

"Don't worry the other volunteer should be here soon," she reassured before wishing her the best of luck and leaving.

Indiana sighed, she felt instant regret of getting out of bed and mentally promised to not show up tomorrow. Today, she would need to just put up with it, with a deep breath she opened the door again. and rushed inside before she lost her confidence.

About twelve sets of eyes turned and stared at her, the door shut loudly behind her.

"Hi?" She awkwardly waved her hand.

They all stared at her for a few more minutes, until one saviour in the size of a little five-year-old, approached her. He stuck out his hand, she hesitantly shook it and instantly regretted it. She felt cold, damp, stickiness, perhaps he wasn't her saviour after all. He even had the nerve to laugh.

"It's poo!" He giggled out before running off to the other group of kids who were crying with laughter.

That's when things started to kick off.

They all started to yell again, running around the room which Indiana thought was an endless game of your it or perhaps it was stuck in the mud, but she stood with her sticky hand, which she thankfully found out to be chocolate, from the smell. Holding back a frustrated sigh, she looked around the toy cluttered room to notice a little girl playing cleaning her barbie doll with wipes. Narrowly, sidestepping some kids running towards her, Indiana walked over to the little girl and sat beside her.

"Please," Indiana awkwardly started, clearing her throat, "can I have one?"

She showed her chocolate covered hand and the girl gave one with a giggle, Indiana smiled a little while wiping her hands.

"That's Charlie," she nodded in the direction of the boy, "he's like that with newbies."

"Oh," Indiana stared at him, he was now trying to create the largest Lego building and the other kids watched with excitement, "he really is something."

"He's nice," she hastily defended, Indiana raise an eyebrow, "really, he is."

"Do you like him?"

The girl instantly looked back at her doll and Indiana could have sworn she was wiping it a little harder.

"No way," she denied but still refused to meet her eyes, "he's gross."

Surprised by the childish denial, Indiana let out a laugh and asked if she could play with her, the girl instantly offered her another doll with black hair.

"Hi there," she awkwardly moved the black-haired doll to a table which was cluttered with miniature tea cups and plates, "my name's Indiana."

"Hello," the little girl chirped, "my name's Annie."

Indiana and Annie played like that while the other kids carried on screaming, she hated to admit it, but it wasn't bad, Annie was sweet and kind of adorable. If the rest of the volunteering was like this, she didn't think it would be so bad.

"Please may I have some more tea?"

"Of course," Indiana smiled as she poured an empty, pink tea cup to another small cup while Annie beamed at her but then suddenly she was carried away, her doll sent flying.

"What are you doing?"

Indiana jumped up and glared at the boy who was suddenly carrying her, her hands balled into a fist, she was ready to punch the guy.

"Let her go," she began to yell at him but was stopped when she heard Annie giggle in his chest.

"So," he tickled the little girl while the other kids gathered around him, "how is my fair Lady on this glorious day?"

Annie replied with a mixture of laughter and shrieks and the boy let out an evil laugh but gently let her go. Finally, he met Indiana's raised eyebrow and crossed arms.

"Hey," she greeted, she thought about offering a hand but then thought better of it, "I'm Indiana."

"Indiana," his mused while his lips curved into a smile that screamed trouble, "like Indiana Jones?"

"Very original," she rolled eyes and shoved her hands into her jumper pockets.

"What," he ushered the children behind him, "has brought you to my kingdom?"

He wiggled his eyebrows, snapped his fingers and a plastic sword was quickly given to him. Animatedly, he pushed it towards Indiana until it barely touched her chin, the children gasped and cheered excitedly

"Volunteering?" Indiana weakly offered while taking a step back but that only caused him to inch closer.

"So," he tilted his head to the side, "you aren't here to steal my kingdom?"

Indiana noticed Annie behind him, she had a pink sword in her hand and was ready to throw it. She gave her a wink and it was sent flying from the little girl's hand. Side stepping his sword, she ran, jumped and managed to catch it mid-air. She turned to the boy, knocked his sword out of his hands and pushed her newly caught weapon forward until he stumbled to the floor, her sword was barely touching his chin.

"Consider it," she smirked, "stolen."

Suddenly, the kids, which were all behind him, all ran to her and cheered. They started to dance around her, and she couldn't help but laugh. Indiana gave them a few high fives and barely avoid Charlie's sticky hands. After a while, they all settled down to playing race cars and Lego.

"Alright," the boy got up and wiped off imaginary dust off his trousers, "my name's Elijah."

Indiana was instantly reminded of the conversation with Sarah, he must be the other volunteer. Sarah didn't lie when she said he was cute, with his dark messy short hair and brown eyes, he wasn't that bad looking.

"You are the other volunteer?"

"Yeah," he quickly replied before randomly stopping a kid by his shoulders and pulling him back. It was sticky hands, Charlie. Elijah fished out a packet of wipes from his pocket and cleaned his hands.

Indiana stared at him curiously, he really knew what he was doing here, she wondered if he had volunteers before. He smiled at the boy, messed up his hair before letting him go.

"Carry these," he threw her a packet of unopened wipes, she caught it with a raised eyebrow, "trust me they work wonders."

"How long have you been volunteering to know this?"

"A while," he replied with a half-smile and then started to pick up the random toys and threw them into a large box placed in the far corner of the room.

"I see."

Indiana began to help him, picking up the random toys and throwing them into the box. She never missed a single shot, it reminded her of basketball. For a split second, she felt that familiar ache of regret. Quickly, she shook the thought away and grab the last item, ironically a basketball but Elijah grabbed it before she could.

"If, I get it in that box," pointed at the half full box they had been throwing the toys in, "with my eyes close and in one shot," he juggled the ball from one hand to the other, "then we get out of here."

Normally, Indiana wouldn't even entertain the idea of saying yes but for some reason she really wanted to wipe that confident smirk off his face.

"Alright," she casually shrugged and they both stepped away from the box, until they were at the doorway.

The children stared at Elijah curiously, he gave them a quick cheeky smile and winked at Indiana, who rolled her eyes. He closed his eyes the kids, as if knowing what was going to happen scrambled to the side, out of the kill zone.

"Clear," Indiana crossed her arms and leaned back on the door, he couldn't possibly make this, even she would struggle.

He took a deep breath, then suddenly he slammed the ball down to the floor, it bounced up and hit the ceiling and by pure luck, it went right in the box.

[believe by when chai met toast]  

footnote 150819:

this story has been plaguing my mind for some time so here i go, lets all pray this this will remain in my heart and i finish it

feedback is always welcome and appreciated