Timelines Collide

Chapter 27: A Routine Getting Use Too

That night, for once, I openly accepted the bed's offer to tuck me in as its hands slowly cradle me. If the morning wasn't hard enough, learning all of Loran's daily tasks and the specific request I needed to fulfill, hell might as well have broken loose when they all got home.

It all started so simply. The first two who came home were Luana and Lavender. Luana was the least of my troubles. Only cracked some jokes that she deemed funny while motioning up the stairs to do her own thing within her and Luna's shared room.

Conversely, Loran requested that I help with her math homework and help prepare her sports gear for baseball. Safe to say, I and Lavender weren't too keen on the idea. If the constant looks of crossed-eyed annoyance every time I corrected her for a problem showed for it.

Though I made a promise to Loran, I sucked up any voluntary combat in my throat and swallowed it. Still, teaching her how to do math was like trying to teach a foundling to wield a pistol. Painful and sluggish. At least they have the excuse that they're below the age of ten.

After what felt like hours of glaring combat with the eyes, I then helped pack some of her gear and watched her ride off an hour later with a fellow teammate. Not forgetting to give me one last round of a snake hissing through her eyes before she did.

The real hard part however was when the whole bunch came back all at once. Lisa, Lincoln, Lana, and Lola. Once I told them that I'd be filling in for Loran for the evening, the twins took no time rushing towards me, pulling my pants each in opposite directions, begging me to help them first over the other.

Lincoln threw me a bone and offered to be the subject for something Loran or should I say, I should have been. Lisa nodded, seeming to accept the proposal to leave me with the twins. Eventually, after maybe ten minutes of them bickering with one another still in earshot, Lola gives in and lets Lana have me while she finishes preparations. Lana then hugs Lola bringing out one of those rare warm smiles from her and then rushes me by the pants into the dining room.

All I needed to do was simply help her glue on some planets for a solar system project her class was doing. Though whatever she was using for the planets must have been brittle and rare because my hands worked double to not crush them into pebbles. Sadly, even working double couldn't stop my metal one from cutting Pluto down to the tips of my middle finger.

I thought she would have been mad, but she just laughed it off claiming that Pluto was already too big. For the next few hours, we continued letting our laughter echo throughout the house until she took her diorama out of the dining room and into the garage for safe storage. All that was left was to deal with Lola to see what she had in store for me.

I went and knocked on her door and she happily let me in and told me to take a seat at a children's pink table with stuffed animals in chairs circling it. She then explained that I would need to play the part of the guest, the butler, and a character she called Mrs. Puffol who would talk with a wacky British undertone. I did my best, but clearly, I wasn't a good actor as Lola stated multiple times throughout the session.

Lana ended up joining for a little bit to my relief, but she got kicked out just as quickly for burping open mouth all while drinking tea. That left only me to see that cold nightmarish grin every time she poured me a cup. The tea granted was pretty good being peach sweet but yet smooth going down the throat. However, thanks to that grin, I would get the sense she laced it with something that could drop me convoking at any moment.

Her open-toothed smile, especially, gave me a tap of shivers the more she did so. My saving grace, to my surprise, was Luna finally arriving back from where she came. She took my place, which Lola accepted almost immediately. Not going to lie, the coldness of her abandonment after all I endured for her, kept me a bit livid walking towards the door.