Strange Beginnings// j.p.

Chapter 6- Learning Lessons

        The walk to the children's home was so much easier inside the loop, with the path well-kept and solid dirt instead of mud. Rounding the bend in the path, I could finally see the house looming above me, and I could hardly believe my eyes. It had been restored to its full splendor, no longer a bombed-out shell, reeking of hopelessness and despair, but a thing of beauty, large and bright and clearly full of life. A large, sprawling lawn of the most vibrant green held flowerbeds and gardens of all manner of brightly colored, sweet-smelling flowers. The house itself was fresh and new, pristinely painted with its turrets and chimneys almost touching the sky. I followed the flagstone pathway up to the front porch, where I climbed the steps and took the door knocker in my hand, banging it against the wood a few times before letting go. After a short wait with butterflies in my stomach, the door was opened, and I came face-to-face with Miss Peregrine herself.

          She stood only a few inches taller than me, dressed all in black, hair pulled tightly back into a sensible bun, gloves on her hands, and collar buttoned to her throat. She wore a pair of round spectacles and held a smoking pipe, just as Abe had always said. "Can I help you?" Her tone, while not impolite, wasn't exactly warm and open, so I decided to jump right into it. "Hello, Miss Peregrine. My name is Alessandra Baker, I'm a peculiar. I was raised by Abraham Portman, he sent me here to find you." She didn't look nearly as surprised as I had expected her to be when I said those words, and she stepped aside to invite me in. "I was expecting Jacob Portman to show up at my door today," she said as she led me down a long hall into what I guessed was the parlor or sitting room of some sort, "Not you. Abe wrote to me often and told me many things about you. Your unusual talents, your adventures hunting hollowgasts with him. But I expected he'd send his grandson to us and not you."

            I settled into a chair across from her, nodding. "He sent both of us, but Jacob doesn't believe all this is true. He came through the loop with me, but he got angry, and he stormed off towards the town. He thinks this is our time, 70 years in the future. He's in for a nasty shock when he realizes." "And so, you left him alone in this? You didn't follow him to try and explain?" Miss Peregrine stared at me disapprovingly over the rim of her glasses, and I felt my cheeks flush in shame. "I tried explaining it all to him," I started quietly, ducking my head, "but he didn't want to hear it. He was fed up with trying to believe that everything Abe said was true, and we had a bit of a fight. He yelled and called me crazy, I slapped him and stormed off." She was quiet for a moment, assessing me with those piercing eyes. "I see," she began, steepling her fingers, "You and Jacob are romantically involved, Abe told me all about it in his letters. And Jacob hurt you when he said those things." My only response was a nod, too afraid I'd burst into tears to trust my own voice. "Well, it's no matter. I've sent Emma and Millard out to look for him. They'll find him and bring him safely here. Would you care for some tea, dear?"

                  And that was how I found myself nearly twenty minutes later, sipping my second cup of tea when Jacob came through the door to the sitting room, accompanied by the blonde girl I recognized as Emma, his hands bound with a piece of rope and a dull knife in Emma's hand. "Hello, Jacob," she spoke calmly, holding up a hand to silence Emma's shocked exclamations, "I am Headmistress Peregrine. But, as you are not currently under my care, you may call me Miss Peregrine." She held out a hand for him to shake, finally taking notice of the rope around his wrists when he didn't lift a hand to return the sentiment. "Miss Bloom! What is the meaning of this? Is that any way to treat one of our guests? Free his hands at once!" Emma looked properly chastised for her part but tried to explain herself, nevertheless. "But Headmistress! He's a snoop and a liar and I don't know what else, but he's bad!" She leaned to whisper in Miss Peregrine's ear, and I distinctly heard something about believing Jake to be a wight. Miss Peregrine audibly laughed, shaking her head. "What absolute balderdash! If this boy were a wight, my dear, you'd already be boiling in his soup pot! This is Abe Portman's grandson, of course! Just look at him!" With only little protest, Emma untied the rope from his wrists, and I rose to my feet to move across the room to him. Emma turned her piercing, angry gaze on me, clearly disappointed when I didn't wither back. "And who's this?"