Parallèles 1 -Escape-

Chapter 1: Crashing the party

If there was one thing Elisabeth hated more than anything, it probably was those long dinners alone with her aunt. Oh sure, she was a nice old lady... But that was the problem. She was an old lady. A boring old lady who wanted her to have manners, which involved staying seated at the table for long period of times, usually eating dishes she didn't especially enjoy, sitting up straight and hands neatly folded on the table, her elbows stuck at her side... All that making for a fairly uncomfortable position.

In normal families, people ate pizzas in front of the TV. She simply had to swallow those hard, tasteless steam-cooked vegetables in silence. Or well, almost silence ; the old grandfather clock in the dinning room created an even heavier feel to those unending dinners, with its constant ticking. Of course to break the monotony, there was the light clicking noise her cutlery did as she sliced through the meat and gathered food on her fork, but it wasn't much to look forward to either.

Tonight's dinner was especially unbearable for the young lady ; for the first time of her life she'd been invited to a party. Of course dear Aunt Jeanne wouldn't agree with it ; she'd said she was grounded. Grounded, at her age ! All that because she wasn't musically inclined and skipped her piano lessons. Oh sure, usually the punishment for that kind of offences involved not getting dessert, but she didn't mind that too much. She didn't especially have a sweet-tooth after all. But no, tonight she was to go back to her room early and stay there instead of going out to socialize. Or well, that was the official plan anyway.

Finally, after what seemed like centuries, the stern looking older lady put down her dishes and elegantly patted at her mouth with a napkin. She looked straight at the red-headed young lady facing her, in a way that seemed to indicate she wouldn't compromise on anything.
"You may leave the table. I expect you to go to your room to reflect on what you did."

With that she herself stood up, her old wrinkled hands pressing against the polished dark oak wood of the table as she did. The older lady then walked away with what seemed like a bit of difficulty, though she obviously did her best not to let it show.

That was all the younger of the two needed to get up and walk to her room, trying not to glare on her way there. After giving a small nod to the maid who walked in the dinning room to gather their dishes, she walked up the stairs to her room, skilfully avoiding that one step that creaked awfully; once out of her aunt's sight, she sighed and slouched a little more, letting out a small yawn. She had a plan. If anything, Elisabeth was a stubborn person. She wanted to go to this party, and she'd do everything she could to go. Of course Jeanne knew it; she wasn't born yesterday. And that was exactly why she walked in the younger lady's room half an hour later.

What she saw actually pleased her; for once it seemed her niece had decided to be nice, as she was laying in bed, wearing her nightgown, seemingly about to turn the lights off. A rare smile appeared on her thin lips as the older lady went to kiss her forehead, wishing her good night before exiting the room to go back to her own room.

That was exactly what Elisabeth waited for. After another ten minutes she took out a small torch-light from under her blankets, turned it on before aiming the beam under her bed, her hair brushing against the floor as she hung over the edge to reach there, grabbing a nice outfit. At age 18, as she was about to finish High School, she was finally invited by her classmates to attend one of their parties. She wasn't letting anyone blow this up for her. She slid a nice, long white cotton skirt with lace at the hems on, before putting on some tights, a good pair of shoes on her feet- flats. She wasn't into the idea of hurting herself, and her plan involved a bit of climbing...All that topped by a nice, slightly more revealing green top that matched her eyes perfectly.

She put on a touch of make up before opening the window, bunching up the skirt and tying it around her waist better, sliding off the windowsill and holding onto the vines running along the wall, using the uneven red bricks as ways to hold herself up against the wall as she carefully climbed down. The red-head was well aware it was dangerous, but it wasn't something that would put her off doing it anyway. Once her feet were securely on the ground, she made sure her skirt fell around her legs nicely again before running across the grass, avoiding the paths in her gardens; they were covered in gravel, and while it was definitely really pretty, it also was very noisy. Of course there still would be the problem of the gate... But she knew a dog had escaped through a hole he'd dug two days ago, and that part of the fence around her mansion was currently only barred off by a smaller barrier she could very well climb over. The construction workers in charge of repairing the fence had decided it would be simpler to replace it and, after removing the damaged fence, had merely made sure it was closed off enough to avoid falls as they waited for the new piece to be made. Once she'd be over that, all she'd have to do was let herself slide down the steep slope carefully to be on street level, free to walk to the party.