Chapter Six

A Chapter by firabelle

I opened Adda’s door. “I’m back!” I called out. The door to Adda’s drawing room opened as soon as the words passed my lips. Eloise’s head popped out from behind the ornate door.

“Come in here now! Come on!” she came out and dragged me into the room eagerly.

“Oh my god, El! You don’t have to drag me!” I laughed out loud.

“Yes I do!” she retorted eagerly. “Come on, we have to design your wardrobe!”

I ‘walked’ in to find Fee, Adda, and Penny chattering excitedly.

“But I think a scarlet is really her color!” exclaimed Adda.

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous, she would look amazing in pastels,” interjected Fee.

Penny shook her head. “No way- just do some clean-cut colors, like royal purple, red,

Emerald green, and stuff with blue undertones.”

I cleared my throat quietly. “I think t-shirts will do just fine, ladies. Anything else and I’ll feel bad soiling it with my dirty peasant back.”

All three of their heads whipped around like cats who had heard a sudden noise.

“Well?” asked Fee expectantly.

I spread my arms wide. “We’re good!”

Adda clasped her hands together joyously. “That’s splendid! Are you going back to your house for clothes?” She asked the question nonchalantly, or at the very least tried to.

“No, because your parents insisted that I stay here for the night, and that someone get clothes for me. Really, Adda, you need to tell them that I’m not their kid, and that I most definitely do not need to be spoiled.”

Penny waved my comment towards Adda away. “They love you as their own; I think we all do. No, I do believe it is much too late for that, Stella.”

I rolled my eyes and sat down. “Okay, fine, whatever. Where am I sleeping tonight? I need to know if I can sneak out, and where to put poor Bard- he’s so damn tired. I think he’s literally about to fall off my shoulder.” I hazarded a cursory glance at him, while trying to not disturb the sleeping bundle of feathers. True to my word, Bard was out like a shot-out light. “C’mere, featherbrain,” I muttered as I scooped him into my hands. I looked up to see four very horrified girls. “What?” I asked petulantly. “He needs a place to sleep,” I added self consciously.

El put her tea down gently and came over with a grim look on her face. Even after all of this time that she, (and everyone else in the room save for Bard and I), had spent with us, they were still squeamish. Still, none of them were visibly gagging, so some progress had been made. To be fair, I still gagged at the sight of any of their ‘houses’...

She evaluated him in my hands, probably to make sure that he wasn’t visibly crawling with worms.

“What’s wrong?” I asked innocently.

El plastered what she probably meant to be smile on her face. “Oh, nothing at all!”

“Maybe he could sleep in a hat or a few socks set up high? Preferably by a window that he can get out of, that’s also close to me?”

She nodded timidly. “Yes, yes, that sounds like a good idea. How about over there?” She gestured towards Adda’s bookshelf.

I shrugged. “Seems as good a place as any. Grab Concordia, open up her case, and get the socks that I keep in there for this little fella.”

Penny snapped out of her frozen state of shocked disgust to stand up quickly. “I got you, fam.” She went to my shoulder and did as I asked.

“Hey, Penny?” I asked.

“Yes?” she responded as she finished with the socks.

“Please don’t try to be ghetto; I know that you’d never say that sort of thing if I wasn’t around. Infact, I know that you abhor that kind of talk. It’s just a wee bit more than a little weird to hear you talk like that.”

Adda tried to conceal her laughter with a sip of the cup of tea that she was still drinking. Seriously, how long did it take her to finish a cup? Though, I suppose it is a skill that is necessary for fancy rich-lady-toff tea parties. Penny flushed, Fee just about dropped her tea, El widened her eyes in shock, (it still surprised me how easy it was to shock these girls, even after a few years), and I grinned unapologetically.

I set Bard up high, and spoke. “It’s just a little weird, given that you could probably get away with teaching an english class because your grammar is that spot on.” When no one responded, I sighed and opened my mouth again. “Look, El, take it as a compliment. You have unnaturally good grammar, and I don’t because I’m a peon. Okay? Okay.”

“You aren’t a peon, Stella!” exclaimed Adda.

Fee shook her head quickly. “No, no, you’re too smart.”

I felt like growling. “Most ‘peons’ aren’t stupid, Fee; they just can’t afford to go to college and not be swamped in student debt. Sure, we have it better than most, especially Americans, but many still can’t afford to earn a higher education. You’re being a complete toff, is all. As an American would say, you have your head so far up your a*s you’re seeing daylight.”

If what I said before had shocked them into silence, this stripped their vocal cords and sent their heads spinning. I put my hands on the window sill and leaned on it, cooling my temper. Bloody hell, I never got that angry around them, ever. I recalled a day with Clovis many years ago while I was with him and Da at the Memorial Gardens, and some very, very rich family had come to visit. “Clovis, look!” I had pointed excitedly at the group of finely dressed people. He didn’t notice my insistent tugging and whining, so I went up to them out of sheer curiosity. I hadn’t thought of them as people, then- they were a whole nother species. I tugged on a man’s suit leg. He looked down at me over his huge beak if a nose, and his lip curled in repugnance. “Someone get this gutter w***e’s mick off of my leg, before it pisses on me.”

On hearing that, Clovis had stormed up to the man and gently grabbed me off his leg. I was sobbing and sniffling and just a complete mess. “Her mother was a queen among women, you toff!” he screamed. “Don’t talk to her like that! She’s worth a million of you, if not more!” I started crying even more, as I had never seen him shout. Da tapped Clovis on the shoulder. Calm down, he signed. Da picked me up off Clovis, then grabbed Clovis with his free arm. After we made it to the shed,(which had been replaced a few years later), Clovis calmed down.

You ought to be ashamed of yourself, signed Da.

He was screaming at your daughter! He made her cry, for god’s sake! Retorted Clovis.

And by losing your temper, you made her even more upset. Da looked down at me and kneeled so we were eye-to-eye. And you, little miss, never lose your temper. It always makes matters worse. Always, always, always. We can never assume that someone knows, and we can never make decisions based on that. You’ve just seen what happens if we do that. Even when I was young, he spoke to me candidly.

I shook myself out of my stupor, but didn’t turn around. Hell, they probably didn’t know any better; they lived in a bubble, and I was its sole protrusion.

“Is something wrong?” asked Eloise. “You’ve been acting oddly.”

I stayed stock-still. “Yeah, I guess I have. Sorry I lost my temper.” Nothing had been off, but something wasn’t exactly right, either. I couldn’t put my finger on it.

Fee came up and put her hand on my shoulder. I looked down, at her beautifully sculpted hand on my paint-covered black t-shirt, and inwardly laughed to myself. That frame illustrated our entire friendship in every aspect, at least from their point of view. An upper-class helping hand, trying to change a lower-class freak. “For god’s sake, what’s wrong? Just tell us; you know keeping whatever it is in won’t help anything or anyone.”

I took a deep breath and spun around slowly. “I just lost my temper, is all,” I said quietly. Which is quite the event in of itself.

“So you’re not going to explode again?” asked Penny timidly.

I chuckled out loud. “No, I won’t. Sorry you had to see that- I’m never like that, on the outside, at the very least.” I sat down with a huff. Everyone looked on edge, and I began to realize that my childish little outburst could have cost me a relaxed night in the opulent Bellair palace.

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