Diamond S Ranch

4 The Rules

She put away her clothes and placed a few of her mementos on the nightstand beside her bed. A picture of her mom, a small trinket box and one of those yellow rubber ducks with a red bow on top of its head rounded out a few of her most favorite things. She pulled out Mr. Marshmallow and put him under her pillow. She wasn't ready to share him with the rest of them just yet. The other thing she would have to wait till she found a place she felt was safe to keep it. She would need to investigate her room some more before she put it away.

Sitting on her bed, she still marveled this was her room. For a moment it made her, almost, rethink leaving. Maybe this could work out, they wouldn't have gone to all this trouble just to give her back would they? She piddled around the room some more when she realized she had no idea what time it really was. There wasn't a clock anywhere in her room and she had no idea where one would be. She tried not to panic; however, she really didn't want to be late for her first dinner with them. That feeling had more to do with she didn't want to be the last one walking in and all of them watching her more than ticking off Jake. She decided to see if she could find one and stepped out of her room.

Exiting her room, she paused a moment peering over the balcony and coming to the conclusion of having no idea where to even look. Haltingly she walked to the end of the open balcony and turned down the hallway to her right. She opened the door she remembered Kaison opening and him saying it was a storage closet. But when she turned on the light, all she saw was linens and cleaning stuff. She carefully closed the door. Walking a little further she saw a light coming from one of the rooms. It was Jordan's room. She hesitated at the door and finally got the courage up to knock.

"Come in," Jordan answered,

Slowly she pushed the door open and saw he was sitting on his bed his back to her. She stood there biting her lower lip, trying to decide if she should walk on in or just run back to her room, when Jordan turned around.

"Well, hello Princess." He said as he looked over his shoulder at her, "What's up?"

Hovering close to the door, she finally asked, "Um, do you know what time it is? I...uh, I don't have a clock in my room.

Jordan got up from his bed and walked around to where she was standing. Gosh he looked so tall too.

"What? They didn't give you an alarm clock or anything?" He asked his face reflecting surprise mixed lightly with amusement. With Jake's insistence of being promptly on time for everything, he found this oversight slightly ironic.

She shook her head no.

"Well, hold on, I can help you with that." He announced as he went his closet.

A few moments later he pulled something out and motioned for her to come over to him while he sat back down on the bed.

"Let me go ahead and set the time for you." He said as he turned the clocks dial till it showed 5:07pm.

"What time do you need to get up to get ready for school and be ready to go by 7:15am?" He asked, "I'll go ahead and set your alarm so I can show you how to do it." He offered.

Elle thought a moment, going to school here hadn't even crossed her mind yet. But, so as not to give away her plans of not staying there long enough to worry about school, she told him about 6:45am.

He looked down at her and knotted up his eyebrows, "Let's say 6am," He decided, "You need time to eat breakfast before you go to school.

6am?! What? "I don't eat breakfast." She stated flatly, "I am fairly sure, no one does at the freaking hour." She finished more to herself.

"Well, you do now," He replied his tone indicating it wasn't up for discussion. Showing her how to set it and turn it off, he then handed it to her, "You can have this," he stated, "I just use my cell phone now anyway."