All For Not - Wednesday

Page 97

I feel like it sounds like I'm making excuses. But I swear i thought i posted?

I'm genuinely confused why it didn't post last week...I legit planned in all out because Dec 8th we had a litter of kittens born and I wrote this page in advance for y'all?

.....................

      Popping the trunk I quickly sit up and slip from the carpeted interior, pulling myself out and dropping down outside of the driver's ed car. My boots crunch into the gravel of the large circular driveway leading into Willow Hill, slipping into the many small stones as I turn and start walking almost immediately leaving the trunk open.

Ignoring the instructor's panic inside the car I look over to Wednesday as she rounds the car with her bag in hand, meeting up with me fairly quickly. We make our way up to the man sitting behind the window of the gated reception building, makeshift guards sitting around and playing cards on the old computer system.

"I'm here to see Tyler Galpin." My sister says as we come to a stop in front of the window.

The first reaction we receive is a dry chuckle from the man's throat as he calls out to the woman who sits a few feet away from him, clearly annoyed by him herself, "Hey, Ross, check it out. Another one of those weirdo fangirls who's got the hots for the Hyde." The man's first words have me looking away in annoyance as my sister opens her bag while he continues to talk, "quit wasting our time, and find something else to obsess over. You know, like, uh, boy bands or puppies."

Suddenly Wednesday pulls out the double binders worth of papers and my invitation letter, smacking them down onto the bar sill, stunning the man whose smile suddenly falls, "Call your supervisors and tell them Wednesday Addams and her sister are here. That's Addams with two Ds, like "padded room.""

It doesn't take long from the moment he grabs the phone and dials into the main building for the large iron wrought gates to open up and the guard to give us a nod, signaling us permission to enter the estate.

"Quite grand for an institution that contains criminals and has a brochure on how far they've come from lobotomies..." I grumble as we walk up towards the main building together, a woman waiting at the bottom of the stairs for us.

"Jellybean?" She offers as soon as we come up to her, stopping just before the stairs, "I'm impressed...." She laughs awkwardly at the stack of files in Wednesday's hand.

Suddenly she's shoving the jar of jellied beans into my hands and taking the files, turning to walk up the stairs, "Follow me this way."

Eyeing the woman I blink, eyes glancing towards Wednesday before they flick down to the jelly bean and I make a face of disgust. "As a stickler for proper form etiquette, you have left no box unchecked..." Wednesday starts to follow her up the stairs and looks back at me as if telling me to follow.

"This isn't my first time with the criminally insane." She says as I follow after her. "When can I see Tyler?"

"Ah, hold those pigtails..." The woman ahead of us says as we walk inside, "Dr. Fairburn will need to make that call." I raise a brow, hands itching to toss the jaw off to the side, even as the jellied beans heat and begin to melt in the bottom of the jar.

"Is that Tyler's handler?" Wednesday asks.

"Handler? We're not a zoo." She gets in reply, I roll my eyes and look around as they continue to talk and walk, passing through a gated entry piece down the hall from where we started, "You're right. Zoos don't pretend that animals can change their nature with electroshock therapy and daily drսg cocktails."