MPHFPC one-shots

Masquerade Part One

Bookverse

It was a normal day for the peculiars, except... it wasn't. They peculiars (the ones who were able to attend school in present day Florida) were all attending a fancy masquerade party thing the teachers were pretty much forcing them to do before they broke up for the holidays. Most of the peculiars (Horace, Claire, and Olive) were really excited about it (they loved to dress up in fancy clothes), but the others weren't exactly the most encouragable.

Enoch was currently slouched in the arm chair of the living room, wearing a black tuxedo. A grumpy expression donned his face as he glared unhappily at the abandoned masquerade mask in his lap. Miss Peregrine was making him go to the 'stupid, boring' school party as it was apparently polite seeing as it was requested all students go.

His eyes lifted up to burn holes into the back of Horace's head, watching as the other peculiar straightened his black bowtie in the mirror.

As Enoch glared around the room at the other children (and most importantly Miss Peregrine), Claire ran up to Horace wearing a lovely red and gold dress. She had a mask in her hand that matched her dress.

"Can you lift me up so I can see myself, please, Horace?" She requested of the prophetic peculiar.

"Sure," Horace replied and bent down to pick her up. He positioned her on his hip, mindful of his suit, and watched as she put the mask in front of her face with excitement.

Having had enough of this, Enoch stood up with a huff and left the room to go and find something to eat before he had to (was forced to*) go to the party.

Suddenly, Olive came running down the stairs with Emma and Jacob in tow. All of them were dressed in clothes appropriate for the party. Jacob was wearing a black suit (of course), while Emma and Olive were wearing extravagent dresses. Emma's was light blue with silver swirls and some fake diamantes sewed and glued on. Olive's was plain pink with ruffles and a mask that matched. It stayed on her face thanks to a silk ribbon that had been expertly tied and concealed beneath her hair.

"Are you all ready?" Miss Peregrine asked them, striding into the room. "Where's Enoch?" She then questioned, noticing her absent ward.

"He went into the kitchen," Horace supplied, turning away from the mirror and placing Claire on the floor.

"Would someone fetch him, please," Miss Peregrine sighed, "I have to find Hugh and Bronwyn."

Emma rolled her eyes and left the room to get Enoch whilst Miss Peregrine made the short journey up the stairs to get the last two wards that attended school.

A short moment later, Emma returned wih a sulking Enoch who had a half eaten digestive biscuit in his hand and the other half clearly in his mouth.

"This is stupid," Enoch stated unhappily.

"Well, we don't have a choice in the matter, do we?" Emma retorted.

"I think it's a wonderful idea," Claire said, putting her mask up to her face using the stick.

"Yeah, we look beautiful- like princesses," Olive agreed with Claire. The latter giggled at the assessment, loving the idea of being compared to a princess.

At that moment, Miss Peregrine re-entered the room with both Hugh and Bronwyn traipsing behind her. Both wards looked moody- Bronwyn at the concept of dressing up, and Hugh because... well, he'd been in low spirits since Fiona died.

Miss Peregrine smiled at all of her wards, "right, you're all here. Off you go then."

"I don't want to go," Enoch stated firmly.

"You don't have a choice, Mr O'Connor. The school has requested you all be there, so be there you shall," Miss Peregrine responded.

With that said, the children were ushered out of the house by Miss Peregrine. When they were outside, the door was shut behind them after a final goodbye.

"This is stupid," Enoch said. "Let's go," he sighed anyway and headed for Jake's car.

"What are you doing?" Jake asked, watching him head for the car.

"Getting in the car?"

"There isn't enough room. We have to walk," Jacob told him.

"What?" Enoch scoffed. "If you think I'm walking to school wearing this, you have another thing coming."

"It's only around the corner," Emma pointed out.

"So? We could be seen," Enoch retorted, already looking around the immediate area for other people.

"It isn't so bad, stop behaving like a wuss. Even Claire and Olivie are acting more mature than you right now," Horace said.

"It is so bad," Enoch ranted. "I won't go."

"Enoch, Miss P wants us to go so we have to go. You might as well get over it because if the Bird finds out you haven't been, you're in big trouble," Hugh helpfully stated.

There was a brief moment where Enoch considered just skipping the stupid party anyway and not giving a damn about what the Bird would say, but he'd been on the recieving end of Miss Peregrine's wrath a few times, and it wasn't something he wished to repeat.

He frowned with irritation and sighed heavily, making sure everyone could hear it, "fine. Might as well get this over with."

"That's the spirit, Enoch," Claire said and ran over to grab his hand. "It'll be fun, come on," she said, and with a tug on his hand, the group left Jacob's front yard to head for school.