The World As We Know It

Chapter 7: Comfort and Console

Art credit: William.f on Instagram

On the floor of Pink's playroom, laid a tower of wooden  building blocks, with different colors and different shapes stacked way high, coming up to about the length of both Pink and Pearl's knees. With one final block added to the top of their tower, their creation was finally complete; a triangular block added by Pink, marking the end to their building, as it was clear that no more blocks could be added without it tumbling to the floor.

Whenever the two neared it, the tower had wobbled unsteadily, too tall and skinny to remain still as the girls walked around it, shifting with every movement of the hardwood floor. And much to Pearl's relief, Pink had placed the final block without incident, taking careful steps as she walked backwards towards Pearl, wanting to admire their work just as she did.

"It's perfect!" Pink exclaimed upon approaching Pearl's side, who was less enthusiastic about the block tower in front of her, mostly out of the reason of her own exhaustion.

So far, it had been a month of the same routine, rinsing and repeating as they did the day before. Pearl and her sisters would wake before the sun could rise, spending the rest of their day couped up in the Diamonds house, where they were busy with chores and taking care of Pink.

Waking up early was only an easy task for her sisters, as Pearl was still too young to be doing so, needing a set amount of sleep to function properly. And on top of that, Pearl wasn't going to sleep at her usual bedtime of eight thirty, coming home way past midnight, as her sisters would be preoccupied with work until late in the evening.

Dinner time was when her sleepiness would really catch up to her; Pearl left sluggish as she trailed after her sisters, bouncing room to room as they ticked off their tasks of cleaning and cooking. Sometimes her tiredness would be brought on earlier by Pink, whose hyper antics always left Pearl exhausted, even if it was something as simple as the two of them playing with blocks.

At night, when the sun was down, and Pink herself was sound asleep; was when Pearl felt it worse. She would become cranky, which was something unusual to Pearl's behavior, as she was a mellow kid that did much without complaint. But compared to Pink's version of cranky, which was kicking and screaming tantrums, Pearl was prone to crying, weeping at things that would bother her, like when she was forced to walk to the bathroom all by herself, traveling across the vastly empty first floor of the house, something that completely terrified her in the dark.

Pearl, quiet and shy, had a tendency to hide her true feelings, wanting no fuss at all, not when her sisters already had a lot to do. But with those drastic changes in emotions, so out of character to her usual self, it almost seemed impossible for her behavior to go unnoticed, her sisters suddenly desperate for a change.

Over the last few days, Yasmin and Bec were trying to come up with a solution, Pearl catching pieces of a plan here and there, overhearing how they were going to confront the Diamonds with their deal upfront. And from the information Pearl gathered, their plan would be simply this: to request a small break before Pearl's bedtime, just to get her bathed and in bed at an time appropriate for a five-year-old.

But so far, the only problem with asking this, would be finding the right time to speak with the Diamonds, as it was the busy summer months, and the Diamonds were exclusively spending time at their Empire City office. These days, it was rare to see the couple inside their own house, and in the limited times they were around, both Diamonds were preoccupied with relaxing and keeping to themselves.

Yasmin or Bec wouldn't dare to disturb them otherwise, walking on eggshells whenever the Diamonds were near. And without permission from neither of the Diamonds, her sisters' plan had come to complete standstill, refusing to risk the chance of losing their jobs.