Iridescent ¤ Millard Nullings

¤ 3 ¤

That night, Laina had trouble adjusting to the soft bed and the warm atmosphere. She eventually slept well, but she also slept cautiously, still not trusting this home, or people in it. She also didn't want to over sleep and be the new girl that didn't come down for breakfast because she was too busy sleeping.

She awoke with rays of sun pouring in her window. She hadn't had something like this in over ten years.

She quickly realized she didn't have new clothes for the day as she sat up in her bed. She walked to the wardrobe, stretching, and found many dresses in it. She wasn't the biggest fan of dresses, but she was well educated in the fashion world. These dresses looked her size, some from her time in the seventies. It was almost as if somebody knew she was coming.

She chose a simple yellow dress off of the wore hook, slipping out of the t-shirt and shorts she had on. As she laced her chestnut Doc Martens, she grew anxious. She just then realized she wasn't the only person in the house. She hadn't had good human contact in a while. She hadn't even seen a person her age in forever.

She cracked open her door, letting out a breath, then stepped out, shutting the door behind her. She remembered the route that Miss Peregrine had taken her last night.

Being honest, she was terrified of who were behind all the closed wooden doors she passed. She was afraid that they wouldn't like her, or think of her as freakish, just as all the other kids do. In her early years, after being cast out of the house by her parents, she found she couldn't control her peculiarity around other people. So she had spaced herself away from others, causing her to have horrible social skills.

As she lightly walked down the stairs, she found herself wringing her bruised hands. She paused, scared of fleeing to her room, but scared of whoever was downstairs.

Oh, stop whining and just go meet some new people.

She took a deep breath in, then let it out in one fast, short breath. She continued down the stairs, then rounding the railing to go towards the kitchen, where she heard the clattering of pots.

She found Miss Peregrine with a cast iron skillet in hand, scrambling eggs. She held a pipe between her teeth, taking occasional puffs. Her skirt tails swished at her feet as she twirled between the cutting board and the pans on the stove. She noticed Laina standing in the doorway as she grabbed a knife to cut some sausages.

"My, are you up early, dear! Did you sleep alright?"

"Oh," Laina said, with shining eyes. "It was the best I've ever slept."

"That is great to hear, Laina. Would you like to help me in cooking?" Miss Peregrine encouraged, laying down the knife and sliding the sausage onto to sizzling pan.

"I never learned how to cook," Laina replied. She hadn't had a cooked meal in more than two years, so she definitely didn't know how to cook.

"Well, if you are staying in my house, you'll have to learn," Miss Peregrine said with a wink. "But in the meantime, you can set the table in the dining room. There should be eleven spots, cutlery in the China cabinet, napkins in the drawer."

Laina smiled and nodded, making herself useful. She walked into the dining room, and did as Miss Peregrine said. She danced around the beautiful mahogany table, placing a fork and napkin at each spot as she did so.

"Who are you?" A voice from the doorway asked.

Laina paused and looked up with wide eyes. A girl, seeming her age, with beautiful blonde hair and a baby blue dress, stood in the doorway, looking at her. Her arms were crossed, head toward the right with uncertainty.

Miss Peregrine walked into the room with a pan, and saw the girls in the room looking at each other.

"Ah, Emma! Glad to see you can help introduce our new peculiar. This is Melaina. Melaina, dear, you can say something to Miss Emma rather than staring at her."

Laina quickly averted her gaze. "Hello, Emma."

Emma smiled brightly and bounced towards the shy girl. "You have beautiful hair. What's your peculiarity?"

Laina let down her guard and relaxed her tense shoulders, grabbing at the tips of her hair. "Thank you. I can do things with colors."

Do things with colors? That doesn't even make sense!

Emma furrowed her eyebrows and squinted her eyes, trying to make sense of it. "Like...?"

"Like," Laina quickly cut her off. "There are certain colors affiliated with things I can do. If I touch colors, I get a power from them."

"Okay," Emma nodded, tough still not quite getting it. "I can make fire."

Melaina smiled at her words. "That! I can do that. By touching the color red, I can make fire."

Emma's jaw dropped, finally understanding what Laina meant. "Can you show me?"

Laina looked around the room for anything stained red, but didn't find anything. She was fine with this result, sometimes she can't control exactly what catches on fire, so her whole body is engulfed by a flame.

"I can do other colors. There isn't any red, at the moment. Do you mind if I...?" Laina reached down to grab a fold of Emma's dress. Her other hand formed a ball of water, which swirled and splashed down her arm as she closed her fingers into a fist.

"That's...bloody extraordinary! You're brilliant, Melaina!"

Laina smiled. She was used to people being threatened by her abilities if they were normal, or disliking her because of how much she can do with her peculiarity, basically thinking of her as an overachiever. She enjoyed this Emma girl, she was enthusiastic and sweet, not to mention gorgeous.

"Thank you, Emma. I think you're special too. I don't exactly have control over fire, it mostly controls me. Also, call me Laina. Less on the tongue."

Emma excitedly helped Laina finish with the table, telling the new girl all about the other children. Laina loved seeing peculiars and how different they were from one another, even aside from their abilities. She also hadn't been around people her age (or people in general) in half a year, so this was such a thrilling new chapter in her life.

The other children came down one by one, most looking sleepy still, but they grew loud quickly. Emma and Laina had finished with the table, so she sheepishly hid alongside the blonde, until Emma dragged her along to individually meet the other kids. The peculiarities in this set of kids was broad, though Laina could do the same as three of them. Her touching green would let her grow plants, just as the shy girl with the brunette bird's nest could. Red would result in Emma's peculiarity. And yellow led to her being invisible, like the dashing set of clothes she was last to meet.

"Millard Nullings, enthusiast of not being seen." The boy introduced himself with a joke. The pair were sat together at the long, mahogany table when breakfast was finally prepared. On her left was a brooding teen named Enoch, grumbling about one of Hugh's bees bothering him awake that morning.

"Well," Laina giggled. "Sadly for you, I'm an enthusiast of seeing things."

Millard smiled, despite her obviously not being able to see it. The great thing about being invisible is that no one could see him blush, nor make a face at someone. He could openly, yet silently judge everyone without being seen. But the sad part was no one could see how bright he smiled or any tell-tale sign he was joking or being genuine and nice. Millard Nullings had simply left all the wishes to be a present human in the past, he knew who he was.