The Children of When (Complete)

Chapter 9: Magical Rooms

"How cool is it..." Leah stopped mid-sentence at the look of desolation in Belle's eyes.

"Hey, what's up?" she asked. Belle said nothing, just stepped to the side and looked down at her feet.

Leah felt a terrible sadness fill her heart. Who would make someone live like this? Her eyes took in the horror that was Belle's room. Anger raced through her, and she could feel the sparks shooting from her eyes as she turned to Belle.

"I would really like to meet your Guardian one day," she said, aching at the humiliation in Belle's eyes. "Maybe when we get our Gifts, we need to go back and turn her into a toad or something!"

She saw a look of surprise flicker across Belle's face, and knew her words had achieved the desired effect. Belle had obviously expected sympathy or pity, but Leah had instinctively known that showing either of those emotions was the last thing Belle needed right now.

"Well, what do you think? Are you up for it?" Leah grinned.

Belle burst out laughing, and Leah felt the tension in the air evaporate.

"Oh yes ... I'm definitely up for that!"

"Hey, you guys, how do you reckon..." Raff stood in the doorway to Belle's room, a look of horror on his face. Leah caught Belle's eye, and rolled her eyes at the expression on his face. They both collapsed on the floor in fits of laughter, while Raff stood at the door scratching his head, obviously wondering what could possibly be that funny.

"Sorry Raff," Leah said, pulling herself together and helping Belle to her feet. "But you should have seen your face!"

"Yeah, goodonya," he muttered, his face as red as his hair.

"So, Belle and I were discussing what sort of revenge we could take on her Guardian for making her live in a room like this. Any suggestions?" She was staring hard at Raff, hoping he'd get the message and join in the banter. Relief flooded her as Raff's face broke into an evil grin.

"Hmm," he said, stroking his chin in an attempt to look menacing. "I'm sure I could come up with a few ideas, given some time and the right Gift... muahahaha."

Leah laughed, thinking how cool it was that Raff had picked up her silent message. She had to admit he looked cute when he blushed, even though it made it harder to tell where his face ended and his hair started. She put her hands on her hips and looked around the room in disgust. "Ok, there is no way you are going to continue to live in this ugly room. If you like, we can pull your mattress off the bed and drag it into my room? I'm used to sharing with my annoying twelve-year-old foster-sister, so anything would be an improvement on that!" The excitement in Belle's eyes was enough to tell her she'd made the right decision yet again.

"Really? Are you sure you don't mind?" Leah looked at Raff, and tilted her head towards the bed. Without another word, they dragged the mattress off the bed and headed towards Leah's room.

With much pushing and pulling, they managed to manoeuvre the mattress across the room and under the window. Leah pretended to be fussing over getting it at exactly the right angle, as she watched Belle out of the corner of her eye. The other girl stood frozen in the doorway, looking around the room in wonder. Leah had always loved her room, filled with her favourite stuffed animals, who all lived on the bed. The various trinkets and baubles she had collected over the years were shoved randomly on shelves.

Leah felt the anger rising up again at the thought of Belle living in such a hovel for all those years. She needed to get a message to Madame Persimmons. Somehow she just knew that the kindly headmistress would be just as angry as she was, and would do everything she could to fix the problem, sooner rather than later.

* * *

Lying in her bed later that night, Leah felt better than she had for a long time. She'd dreaded her fourteenth birthday for so long, and now here she was in her own bed, with two great new friends. She pulled the little Hessian bag out from under her pillow, and reached in to pull out the golden circlet. It felt warmer than it had that morning, and there was a faint glow around the edges she hadn't noticed before either. But then, it had been daylight when she'd first seen it, and maybe it was warm from being under her pillow.

She ran her thumb along the ridges where something had been attached, wondering what it had been. She could almost feel the circlet's sadness at not being whole.

Stunned, she pulled her thumb away and dropped the circlet onto the bed. She had felt its sadness. But how could a piece of metal have feelings? And how come she had felt them too? She sighed in frustration. More questions she needed to find answers to. She picked up the circlet, carefully avoiding touching the ridges, and dropped it back into the bag.

As she was pushing it back under the pillow, she had the weirdest feeling someone was watching her. Belle's deep breathing meant she was still asleep, so that ruled her out. Unable to squash the niggling feeling, she climbed out of bed and peered out of the window, careful not to disturb Belle. Her eyes scanned the moonlit meadow, stopping as they spied the silhouette of someone leaning against a tree.

Relief rushed through her. It was Dub. She sent him a message about Belle's room, asking him to speak with Madame Persimmons. And then another one telling him she needed to speak to him in the morning, if possible. He stepped away from the tree, waved, and performed a flourishing bow. She sighed as she climbed back into bed. She liked having Dub on her side.