honey, i'm home.

It was 6:30 pm and the sun had almost set as Susie Parks rushed around the kitchen. On the calendar that hung on the wall, a date was circled in blue pen. December 5th, 2014. Today’s date. And Susie’s step-daughter was coming with her boyfriend. Oh, and her step daughter’s mother was a goddess. No one could say that Susie’s life was normal. She could still remember when Jon told her that her soon to be step daughter was half greek goddess. Susie was pretty sure she accidentally dropped her wine glass. But she loved Aliana ever since she walked into Susie’s third grade classroom. Aliana was practically her own daughter. Which is why tonight had to be perfect. That also meant she had to stop Jon from doing that overprotective dad thing. Susie heard the door to the garage open and she momentarily turned away from the salad to say hello to her husband.
Susie interrupted her husband before he could do his ‘I Love Lucy’ schtick, “No time to talk. You’re late and they’re going to be here any moment. Please change out of that shirt before they get here.”
Jon Parks looked offended, “What’s wrong with my shirt? I wore this shirt to work.”
“I’m sorry, but it’s hideous.”
“Who’s going to see it, my daughter?” Jon joked
“Go change.” Susie ordered, her face unamused.
Jon didn’t argue and headed off to the bedroom to go find a ‘suitable’ shirt.
And Susie went back to work, moving the chicken and all the other food into the dining room. Once she had finished, Jon came back out, this time wearing an appropriate shirt.
“Okay, babe. I know this is Aliana’s first time home with a boy, but you have to promise me that you aren’t going to over do it.”
“What do you mean by ‘over do it’?”
“No threatening. No trick questions. And absolutely no mentioning of your nonexistant gun collection.”
“But that takes the fun out of it.” Jon whined.
Susie gave him a stern look, “Promise?”
“Promise.”
Susie took a deep breath. Everything was going to be perfect.

~~~

Aliana stepped out of the cab and onto the sidewalk. The small layer of snow crunching under her boots. If the cap had dropped them right where she told him, then the front door of her house should be fifty feet away. Aliana’s bare hands were already starting to get cold as she gripped tightly onto Kitty’s harness. She didn’t hear the front door opening, so her parent’s probably haven’t noticed her yet. Which gave her the opportunity to say some encouraging words to her boyfriend.
“Don’t worry. You’ll be fine. They’ll love you.” Aliana pulled her knitted hat farther down to cover her ears. She had almost forgotten how cold Maine got in the winter. Almost. In reality, those words of encouragement were more geared towards herself. It meant everything to her that her dad liked Adan. She wouldn’t know what to do if he didn’t. It was all on her dad. Susie loved everyone. But her dad would be harder to win over. Aliana was his little girl. And his little girl had grown up.

OOC:Sarah bolger has too many period gifs, so I've decided to give in and use the,.

Adan was the son of Hephaestus, a fire god. Fire radiated heat, so Adan was accustomed to the heat. Maine? Maine was nowhere near heat, especially during the winter. Adan had even taken the precaution of wearing an undershirt, under a white long sleeved shirt, under a grey sweater, under a light brown coat. Even then, he was frozen to the bone. In that short walk from the train station to the cab, he was frozen to the bone. Not to mention the heart attack he nearly had when that crunching noise came from under his work boots. Yes, he'd seen snow before during his travels but it always melted when it touched the ground. Here the snow was thin but still visible even if the ice sometimes wasn't (Adan slipped and fell twice so far.) One thing was made clear to him then: Snow sucked.
Now he stepped out of the cab with Aliana, preparing himself for the crunch of snow mind you, and tugged down the thick brown beanie to cover his head more. His shivers where still visible even if he was covered up, but it wasn't just because of the chilly air. Adan was concerned about meeting his girlfriend's parents within a few minutes. The second he opened his mouth could either make them love him or hate him in an instant. He'd tried taking all of the precautions he could: the eyebrow, nose, and lip rings were out as soon as Aliana told him about the dinner at camp, the long sleeves of his shirt and sweater would hide the majority of his tattoos, and he had stuffed a book on table etiquette into his back pocket just in case he needed to use a word like pluperfect, or advantageously. He was still incredibly nervous even if he currently didn't look or sound like it. He stuffed his fingerless-gloved hands into his pockets as he waited in front of Aliana's parent's front door, just as she had told him not to worry.
"Me? Worry? When have I ever worried, Aliana?" The young man smiled and let out a breathy laugh since his chest was burning from the cold air. He was amused by the little cloud that came with it, and used it as a distraction from how completely petrified he was of meeting her father. He heard a lot of father-meets-daughter's-boyfriend stories. He wasn't a fan of the endings.