Number 667

Chapter Eight

Vivian walked in her room, immediately screaming in horror. Red clay marks scarred her perfect white carpet, and cold air was seeping in through the open window. She immediately pounded down the hall and threw open her mother's closet, yanking out the strong vaccuum. She rolled it down thd hall, plugging it in with force and switching it on. After rolling the machine over the wet clay for a moment, she dashed into the bathroom and lathered a great deal of soap and water on her floor, scrubbing it with a brush. She then ran the vaccuum over it again, smiling once the floor ws clean again. She put the vaccuum back up, slamming the window shut and locking it, clicking the small white switch.
Vivian sighed, sitting down on her bed. Her sheets rustled, the soft blue comforter hugging the bottom of her legs. She stood back up again, after a moment, and crossed the room to her door, peeking out of the doorway as she heard her parents' voices down the hall in the kitchen. "Andy, look," she could hear her mother say softly as she shifted the newspaper in her hands. The sound of her foot tapping the white tile in the kitchen could be heard across the house. "Another one. And only a six-year-old! Why don't they go out to find them?" Vivian was intrigued, but not so much as to interrupt her parents' conversation. She backed away from the doorway and sat back on her bed, working out a puzzle in The Practical Book, one on page 557 that was particuarly puzzling.
After a long and hard hour, Vivian lay down the book next to her lamp on the nightstand, and focused on a new puzzle - who had broken into her room, and why? Obviously, she had to have left the window unlocked, as it was opened when she had entered the room. And the red clay was obviously a sign, she had learned in school last Friday that red clay was native to the wTwistville, and was mostly in the Twistville and Twills forest. So obviously they had come from the forest. But why?
Ber thoughts were interrupted when Vivian's mother rapped lightly on the door, creaking it open. She peered around the wood of the door, Vivian looking up at her. "Vivian?" Her mother asked. "What." Vivian said blankly. "Time for dinner." Vivian stood up, scooting her left shoe on the carpet. Vivian looked nervously from right to left. "A-actually I need to pick up some homework from a classmate, a girl named Maple Shay. Can I go now?" She asked quickly and nervously. She looked down at her feet. Her mother blinked. "Uh... Alright. It's not like you to... Forget things." Vivian looked back up at her mother. "Oh, it's extra credit work that I missed over the summer. I'm just going to pick it up." This, this was true. But she had already done the extra credit work. She planned to hunt out Maple and tell her about the breakin. But of course she wouldn't tell her parents. They were too ignorant to understand. Maple was a bit better.
Vivian's mother left, closing the door with a click behind her. Then Vivian cautiously climbed up from her bed, the carpet creaking underfoot. She unclicked the window, jumping out. Then she set out to find Maple Shay.