New Girl in Town

Chapter four

Elijah (Sun, Aug 31)

  I woke up about an hour after Elisabeth had gone to sleep. It was the perfect time for me to get started with my 'surprise' for her. I carefully got up, walked down the stairs, and began cleaning the house up. I figured Stephanie and the girls wouldn't have done such a thing, since they're, let's say...not this type of people.

  The first thing I did was to wash the dishes.. and I mean, the dishes. There were a lot of them. It took me around 30 minutes to finish with all of them! Then, the next thing I had to do was tidy up the living room and the kitchen. I suddenly heard someone's footsteps. I turned to see a - still - sleepy, Stephanie. She looked at me in confusion, trying to understand why I was awake and what I was doing.

"Uh... hi!" I said, trying not to be too loud and wake the others up.

"What the heck are you doing awake at this time?!" she asked, trying to be as quiet as she could, even though she yet still failed. I started hearing the others groan from upstairs, except for Elisabeth. I guess she was having a pretty deep sleep, for not hearing Stephanie technically yell at me. She looked back at me like she was ready to kill me. I could feel her anger and annoyance just by the way she was standing. She was angry.

"Just tell me why you're awake at 3 AM-" she didn't manage to finish her sentence as I interrupted her.

"I woke up to clean the mess you all made- you should thank me!" and she then looked at me in shock. She didn't expect me to talk back to her. But I guess I am no cry baby that's going to be 'respectful' just because she is older.

  A few minutes later, she finally gave in and went back upstairs to sleep. But I didn't. Instead, I decided to make a plan for the morning. As it was Sunday and the shops were closed, I was thinking that we could all go on a walk around the city and then go to the hill to have a picnic. 

  I had finally finished cleaning up, when I noticed it was 7.30 am - wait a minute.. 7.30 am?! 'You're telling me I've been cleaning up this mess for the past 5 hours?!'. I was honestly so shocked by the fact it took me 5 hours to clean all this mess that was done by some stupid irresponsible girls... I was so exhausted. I just wanted to sleep. But then, I heard someone walk down the stairs. It was Elisabeth. She was staring at me like I was a criminal of some kind. She looked.. shocked.

  "Uh.. what did you - what did you do in here?" she asked while getting herself to sit on the stairs. I mean, wasn't it obvious - I apparently cleaned the ground floor? Though it clearly looked like she expected an answer so, I told her.

  "And why did you do that? I could just do it in the morning, y'know..." she sounded...kind of worried saying this...? But honestly, wasn't anyone else allowed to help cleaning the house a bit? 

  "Surprise...? I guess?" she didn't seem to be too excited about it, probably because she had just woken up? I truly didn't know. She then walked to the kitchen to make herself something to eat.

  "Do you want something, too?" She asked me. I had no idea what to eat, to be honest, so I just walked up to the fridge to see what I could eat. I noticed there was some milk left, so I grabbed it together with the cereal and put them in a bowl. Elisabeth seemed to have chosen to eat bread with butter on top. She grabbed the bread together with the butter and sat at the chair next to me. 

  "What does it taste like?" I asked her, and she giggled.

  "It's just... bread with butter. Is it supposed to have any different taste than the one it does, for you to ask this?" I looked at her and laughed. It clearly did not taste any different from the regular taste of bread with butter on top. We had a small talk until we both finished eating breakfast. And then, Elisabeth's phone suddenly started ringing. I took a peek and noticed it was Katherine. She grabbed the phone with force and quickly answered. 

  "What is it that you want at" - she stops and looks at the clock - "8.15 am?" and then puts the speaker on for, I don't even know what reason. 

  "I was thinking that we could go out today as well! Since it's Sunday," she said and I then interrupted her.

  "How about we have a picnic at the hill?" Katherine didn't sound like she was up for it, although Elisabeth's eyes were sparkling from excitement. 

  "I say we go to the hill for a picnic!" she said and I smiled. I was glad she was agreeing with me.