Archives Falls

EE: Part Five

Wendy had been staring at the clock for hours.

The whole day so far had just been waiting. Waiting for it to be a certain time, and as the clock ticked by, each second became longer and longer than the one before. She had done everything she could to make the day go by fast, wake up late, take longer to do things, help out Gideon by the counters but it only seemed to take longer every new activity she did.

Finally, Wendy gave up, and retreated to lying on the counter inside of the gift shop of the Archives of Mystery, watching the clock tick by. It was tedious, and it seemed she had been doing it for hours. She was waiting for her sister to come by and say that it had been only five minutes, but she never did.

Speaking of her sister, it reminded her of the incident just yesterday. She still felt bad about it, saying she was insane. But she hadn't said sorry yet, why hadn't she? Maybe because she hadn't even approached her at all today, maybe because she thought it would be too awkward.

She pushed those thoughts aside, saying that she was just busy. Busy, of course! I've been busy all day, from waking up late, to helping out Grunkle Fiddleford to running outside in the woods to doing a whole bunch of other things. I've barely had time to talk to Pacifica, and she's seemed too busy to talk to me as well.

Wendy smiled, although the smile wasn't real. Even though she was convincing herself of that answer, something on her mind still told her that it was her fault she hadn't apologized to Pacifica. And if Wendy had any sense, she, although secretly, knew it was right.

She looked at the clock once more. It was almost half after four, almost just half an hour until Oran was arriving. She had been anxious about him coming all day. Not just because Oran had promised her to make this fun for her, but he said he was going to tell her something. Something that was his secret.

What could it be? That had been racking her brain all day, and the thoughts seemed to vary along with what emotion she was feeling. Perhaps he was going to tell her he wanted to become something more, that was if she was happy, but there were moments where her thoughts would take a dark turn and think he was telling her he had to go away for vacations, or even moving.

She looked to her right, looking at the merchandise inside the gift shop of the Archives of Mystery. She closed her eyes for a second. Maybe napping through the next half hour would help her go through it quickly. She could fall asleep dreaming of Oran, and wake up and he was right at her door, like I'm those dreamt romance novels some of her and occasionally she read, that would be so-

"Kid, why are you lying on the counter?" She heard a voice. "Everything alright?"

She sat up quickly, looking around, to see Gideon sitting at the chair. When she sat up, he placed his feet on the counter. How long had he been there? Had he been watching her?

"Yeah, everything's fine, but time seems to be going slowly right now," Wendy said. "Is time always this slow? If so, I think I'm going to die."

"I think you're just bored, Wendy," Gideon said. "Usually doing things make the time go by faster, have you tried that?"

"Already have, it makes it seem like it takes even longer," Wendy replied. "Plus, I've done everything. From cleaning the racks for the Archives of Mystery shirts to climbing trees. You name it, I've done it."

Gideon chuckled a bit. "I get the idea. If I might ask, why are you so anxious about the time? You waiting for something?"

Wendy grinned a bit. "If you want to know, there's this guy, Oran, who said he's taking me out tonight and I'm just too excited!"