The Wammy House Memories

Festive Mischief

Chapter 19!

Elizabeth had been living at The Wammy House for over three weeks now, she had trouble settling in at first. Everything was different, also the lack of freedom was frustrating for her. Apparently there was different rules for different students, Mr Ruvie told her that when she asked him if she could visit Rose. She didn't like him and she knew a few other students who disliked him too. He was Watari's manager of the orphanage when Watari wasn't around, he was stern with some of the students and made their lives hell.

The classes were hard too, she felt stupid in some of the classes when she had to ask the teachers for help. The stuff the students were learning was all new to her, she had no idea what to do in the forensic science or criminology classes. They did have normal lessons at the orphanage like mathematics and literacy, they even had foreign language classes which all the students must take. Elizabeth was beginning to think she was the dumbest student at the orphanage, the only things she was good at was forensic art and prosthetic makeup. She had been told by one teachers that she may have a future in forensic art for law enforcement if she continued improving her skills, but she don't want to follow that path.

It was the 23rd of December, the classes had now finished for the holidays. She wasn't really sure how Christmas worked at the orphanage, she had many questions to ask about it. But for now she had to help out with the Christmas decorations. All of the students had been given different tasks, some of the students were putting up paper streamers in the corridors and others were helping to decorate Christmas trees around the building.

Elizabeth had been paired up with Nonie, they were decorating the staircase in the main hallway of the orphanage. They had collected a box of decorations from the assembly hall, there were many different coloured baubles, plastic holly leaves and tinsel in the box. They had both decided to each take a side of the staircase, they shared the decorations out between them and chose which side of the staircase they wanted to decorate. They both began to decorate the staircase's banisters, she looked over at Nonie and watched her hanging some of the tinsel underneath the handrail of the banister.

" And what are you staring at?" Nonie asked.

" Nothing..." Elizabeth replied, she turned away from her and took some tinsel from the box. " I was just checking on what style you were decorating the banisters on your side. I thought it would be better if they matched."

" So, you're copying me?" Nonie asked.

" No, I just didn't want the banisters to mismatched." Elizabeth replied before she began to hang the tinsel from the handrail. " I've never done this before, we didn't really have tinsel at Christmas in my Aunt's cottage."

" Why not?" Nonie asked.

" My Aunt was very set in her ways and never had tinsel on her Christmas tree, she thought it looked tacky." Elizabeth replied, she looked over at the girl. " We use to make popcorn and then thread them on string to hang on the tree. She was very old fashioned when it came to Christmas, we didn't even have Santa toys or flashing lights on the tree. Just white candles and holly across the top of the fireplace..."

" That sounds pretty cool in an odd way." Nonie said. " What kind of popcorn did you use?"

" We dipped it in homemade toffee, it was really good." Elizabeth replied with a smile. " I'm guessing they don't do that kind of stuff around here?"

" No, but if they made toffee popcorn tinsel then Alternative would probably eat all!" Nonie laughed and looked over at Elizabeth. " My Brother told me about your Aunt, I'm sorry that she died. But I don't understand why you're here, you're not like us."