Stay...Calm

Chapter 10

For the next week or so, things went according to schedule. Kids were schooled, meals were eaten as a whole, and no one new arrived. Anais would be seen with her dark blonde hair covering up part of her face, zoning out on everything. The twins would play little practical jokes on their cousins. Parker would keep an arm around Jacey, as Yolanda tagged along. Baby Beau was against Melissa's chest at all times, and Lee would be by her side. When the daily routines would become monotonous, Victorine took it upon herself to explore this wide space she was sharing.

One interesting diversion from the schedule was a drill. A drill if, God forbid, there was an air raid here. The mansion contained a bomb shelter near the wine cellar and the pool. The residents were all gathered in the dining room as Ms.Kion lectured the instructions.

"So, if an attack is spotted, then the fire alarm will be pulled," she began. A few hands came up.

"What if the bomb falls and everyone dies before the alarm could go off?"Horace pointed out.

"We'd try and spot it beforehand,"Ms.Kion justified. "Next, we drop everything and go straight to the shelter."

"Everything?"Lee questioned, arms folded. "Not going back for anyone? Not grabbing anything?"

"I have some things I would rather grab,"Pauline said, with a hand raised. Ms.Kion inhaled deeply and impatiently.

"In the event of an emergency, it would be better if you reported to the shelter immediately," Ms.Kion announced, once and for all. "Now, let's practice quickly but calmly filing into the shelter. Ready?"

The twins and Horace immediately took off running. Ms.Kion sighed. "Or choose to do that. Whatever helps you survive," she said, irritated. The shelter itself would smell musty like a cellar one moment, then like iron the next moment. It had ten plain, skinny beds all lined up in rows. There were a few basic amenities in a corner: a hot plate, a table, a fridge, and cupboard probably chock-full of canned food. Timothy immediately raised his hand.

"There aren't enough beds for everyone," he pointed out.

"Some of you could share,"Ms.Kion commented. He raised an eyebrow at Anias, the corner of his mouth curving up slightly. Pauline spotted that and took a step back.

"I dunno, this place seems kinda small," Thelma muttered, giving herself a hug.

"It has everything we need and keeps us safe, and that's all that matters,"Ms.Kion reminded. "It's better to be safe than comfortable."

"Says the person hiding out in a mansion," Lee mumbled.

"I would rather not witness the messed up stuff you people do when you sleep," Yolanda announced.

"You'll deal with it until some rescue teams are sent,"Mrs.Daniels justified. "We have emergency transmitters just in case."

"How'll they find their way here?"Horace questioned.

"I believe it is best if we cut down on the questions,"Ms.Kion announced. "Besides, authorities have found their ways to places near here. It would explain the rioting a few dozens of miles away."

The room fell silent. Ms.Kion's eyes widened until you could see dashes of color in her eyes. It was the expression one makes when they'd just realized a mistake. Suddenly small murmurs emerged. The younger ones would turn to the older ones, and the older ones would turn to each other. But Ms.Kion cut them off with,"Everyone keep yourselves together. We don't want anything spilling out of control. Let's all just go upstairs and get on with the day, shall we?"

With a handful of eyerolls, the residents obeyed her. Victorine stuck by Yolanda's side as they walked up the stairs.

"I feel like, at this point, the world has just given up," she pointed out.

"Like, on morals?"Asha asked.

"Tell me about it,"Anais groaned. "I was at the point where I was just waiting for some creepy guy to try to touch my butt when I not looking. I mean, it would have to happen some time."

"Some kid once wrote 'terrorist' on my locker," Asha said. Yolanda's eyes widened and eyebrows raised.

"Oh my God, that...actually sounds terrible," she said.

"Well, the next day, that kid came in with a big bruise on his nose, and my sister smirked when I told her about it."

"I can connect the dots on that one."

"Ooh! My teacher once called me this word that started with 're!''" Buckley chimed in. "I was a bit more focused at the window when she said it, but the assistant teacher got angry at her, so I guess that means it's bad, but-"

"I think they have the frickin' idea," Timothy yelled as he stopped by. "You little ret-"

"That one!"

"You have no idea how many teachers I've yelled at," Mrs.Daniels called. "They would actually start quivering when my 'mama bear' senses kicked in."

"We had to rebuild our Summer home on Aunt Tilly's private island three times!" Pauline said, fiddling with her painted nails. "The hurricanes just kept coming."

"A bunch of kids at my school make jokes about politics," Thelma said. "They'd walk past me and yell,'lock her up,' then I'd have to get up and correct them, they'd start laughing at me. Once I was busy arguing when I had to write down my homework and it completely soiled the whole week!"

"Poor...you," Yolanda said sarcastically.

"I swear, so much news came in so fast that I couldn't even keep up with the pace," Lee said. "I'd learned half from twitter and half from Thelma coming home and whining 'bout it."

"Hey!"

"It's like everything consolidated and then fell apart,"Ms.Kion sighed.

"No kidding," Yolanda scoffed.

As Victorine passed her time traveling around the home, she also found out new ways to sneak around. Due to her appearance, she naturally snuck out. But in little ways, she created methods to not be seen. She had naturally quiet feet and used her petite figure to slip away silently. She naturally was a slick crawler, which allowed easy passage across the thick, wide sandstone railings on the second-floor balconies.

These all gave her a way to creep around the house, and let her witness from the corner of everyone's eye. Victorine listened in from the balcony as Lee arguing with Buckley about putting the plates in the wrong cabinets again. Victorine watched Parker and Jacey snuggling on the couch while watching old early 2000's sitcoms with four high-pitched men yelling at each other in a bar. During all of it, she was concealed by a wall or standing right behind them.

Her sneaking along seemed to catch the attention of something else that seemed to move where no one else would see.