Stay with me, always.

Chapter 42. Household Name

I never knew my Father snored. I've been alive for almost nineteen years now, and not once have I heard him snore. Granted, I avoid the man as much as possible, treating him as if he's the plague reincarnated, but that's beside the point.

We got back on the train just before it pulled out of the station. Eudora had told all of us to go to bed and to be ready to do all of this again tomorrow, I was thrilled.

Soarynn and I stayed up late though, first, we raided the bar car, helping ourselves to the finest of wines, before stumbling to the viewing car. We couldn't see any stars in the sky, the clouds blocking out everything, but it was nice to have some alone time on the train. It had to be around one when we tiptoed our way back to our bedroom, now, our bedroom is the farthest away from the viewing car.

So we had to pass the Prep's bedrooms, Eudora's bedroom, and our parent's bedroom. And when we were passing by Mother and Father's door, we froze in our tracks. Father was snoring. It sounded like an engine being revved up. Soarynn and I did our best to cover up our snickers as we stumbled back to our room, trying to not cause a racket.

We fell asleep right after, exhausted from the first day of the Tour. When I woke up, it was quiet.

Too quiet.

Soarynn was pressed up against my side, out like a light, but I didn't hear anything besides the sounds of her breathing. The train had stopped, that I knew for sure, but I didn't hear Eudora, ready to give us another rude awakening. Maybe something had happened, maybe we weren't stopping in Two, maybe everyone decided this Tour was a lost cause and we were refueling before heading back home, that was fine with me. Happy with the conclusion I had come to, I closed my eyes again, ready to fall back asleep.

But then, I heard it.

The heels.

The clacking, the fast pace, the anger. Eudora probably would've ripped through the door if she could have, and I watched in terror as it slid open, revealing a furious Eudora. "YOU'RE LATE!" She shrieked, her face red, and her wig tilted to the side. Soarynn startled awake, sitting up and taking in the situation, "What're you talking about?" Soarynn asked with a yawn, clearly not as scared as I was.

Eudora looked like she was having to manually force herself to breathe as she glared at us from the doorway, "It is seven fifty-one, and we need to be off of this train in nine minutes!" She cried, looking at us as if this was a national emergency. "Well, why didn't you wake us?" Soarynn asked, my eyes widened as I looked down at Soarynn, Eudora's jaw actually dropped from shock. She rubbed her temples, muttering some phrases to herself that I'd much rather not repeat before she collected herself, "The Preps will get Soarynn ready, Coriolanus, you will get ready yourself, and if we are not walking off of this train in fifteen minutes so help me..." she then made a scary gesture with her hands that looked an awful lot like strangling someone's neck before giving us one last glare, and spinning on her heel, and taking off down the hallway.

Soarynn looked up at me, "Well, that was scary," I nodded, "I really did think someone would wake us," I said earnestly as I threw the covers off of us. Soarynn nodded as she swung her feet onto the floor and stood up, doing a big stretch before heading to the door. She looked back at me with a somber expression, "Pray for me," she said, I nodded, holding back a laugh as she slowly walked out and down the hall.

I was miraculously ready in fifteen minutes. I was in the dining car, about to help myself to a little breakfast when Eudora flew in, slapping my hand and grabbing my other hand, and dragging me out of the car, "Oh no you don't! The early bird gets the worm, and you're a very late bird! Now remember, smile for the cameras!" She said as she flung me into the line she had already formed, consisting of Mother and Father, the Preps, and Soarynn who looked like a shiny rock.