The Valley of Mysteries | Book 1: The Beginning

Chapter 18 - AGENT GRUMPY AND DUMBELINA

"My... father?" Natalie was taken aback.
"Yes, Alastor fought his men as a diversion so that Caitlyn could leave safely with you!" Aaron said. "He sacrificed himself to save you and your mother!" he added. Natalie looked at the main door, which her mother had just walked out of. This was the first time she heard anything about her biological father.
"She never... never told me anything about him. Hell! I didn't even know his first name was Alastor!" Natalie heaved a sigh.
"Really?" Sean asked.
"Yeah! I asked her about him once but... she said she doesn't like being asked about him. It's too... painful! Now I know why. Besides, Dad never let me feel like I wasn't her daughter. Actually, I found out he's not my father when I was 10." she sighed.
"Yeah, I remember. But then again, you also thought Brown was just a colour attached to your name." Edward chuckled. Natalie smiled.
"Yeah. Oh, my God! I used to be so dumb." she laughed.
"Used to be? Heh." Aaron scoffed.
"Wanna say something, Agent Grumpy?" Natalie glared.
"Agent Grumpy?" Aaron scowled.
"Yeah, look at yourself!! Grumpyyy!!" Natalie stuck her tongue out at him. Edward and Sean stifled a laugh while Alyssia slapped her own forehead, sighed and drank a glass of water.
"You're crossing your limits, Natalie!!" Aaron warned.
"Oh, yeah? I don't like being told where my limits lie!!"
"Huh, clearly!!"
"Clearly what?"
"Nothing. I'm not Grumpy!!" Aaron said irritably.
"Hey!! Get a mirror for Agent Grumpy!!" she laughed.
"You... If I'm Grumpy then you're... you're..." Aaron looked at his friends for back up but they shrugged in response.
"I'm what? Well, we're in a palace-ish mansion... so I'm the princess!! Bow!!" Natalie laughed. Edward and Sean couldn't control themselves anymore and burst out laughing.
"Huh! You're Dumbelina!!" Aaron was so angry that Sean could have sworn to see actual smoke coming out of his ears.
"What? That's not even a word!!"
"Well, you're the princess... no! QUEEN of dumb people!! And you're so small... like... like..."
"Thumbelina?" Edward said promptly. Natalie grabbed a plate from the table and hit it square in Edward's face. "OW!!!" he cried.
"Well, that's right. 'Coz you're so... small!!" Aaron looked proud of himself. Everyone stopped laughing as Alyssia started laughing loudly. They stared at her for the next 7 minutes.
"Oh, my God!! GOD!!!!! I can't breathe!!" she continued laughing. "Haha. I didn't... hic... know Aaron could be... hic... funny."
"What?" Sean was shocked.
"You... you people!! You're... hopeless!!" she said, still laughing.
"Huh?"
"Look at you, Aaron!! Oh, my God!!" she hugged him and pinched his cheeks. "You were so cute just now!!!" Aaron froze in his place, recalling the entire scene. "And you... THWACK!! In your face!!!" she hit her hand on Edward's face imitating the plate incident. "And you!! Dumbelina!! Ooops!! I mean Nat... hehe. Agent Gwumpy!! Aaron is Gwumpy... oops... I didn't mean Gwumpy... I meant Gwumpy..." she kept laughing to herself.
"Is she trying to say Grumpy?" Edward asked Sean.
"Hold on!!" Sean walked up to her and checked her glass. "Wow!!!" he grinned.
"What?" Edward asked. Sean laughed in response.
"She drank an entire glass of this...!" he pointed towards a bottle of Vodka.
"Wow!!" Edward looked at Alyssia. "Drunk is a good look on her!!" he laughed.
"Dwunk? I'm not dwunk!! I only had oooooneeee!!!" Alyssia swung in the place and sing-songed.
"Yeah, you clearly aren't 'DWUNK' and you did have just one!!" Sean held her tightly and guided her towards the sofa.
"I'll get a glass of WAH-THAH!!" Edward laughed and walked towards the kitchen.
"I..." Aaron was about to say something but stopped mid-track. Natalie was glaring at him. "What?"
"Dumbelina? Seriously? I gave you Agent Grumpy!! Agent!! And I get Dumbelina?" she said in disbelief. Aaron rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, I also got Grumpy!! And hey!! I gave you QUEEN!! Queen Dumbelina." he laughed and walked towards Sean. Alyssia was now punching a cushion.
"I... WILL... KILL... YOU!!!" she yelled. "I... CAN... KILL... YOU... *hic* Because..." she lowered her voice and whispered. "I killed... I killed..." she started crying.
"Jesus!!" Sean hugged her and rubbed her back.
"Here!!" Edward passed the glass of water to Sean. Alyssia drank it in one go. "Woah!! Slow down, woman!!!" Edward chuckled. Alyssia grinned.
"Wow, I've never seen her like this before!! She's always so... composed!!" Sean smiled.
"And then there's Natalie!! On my 18th birthday, some of our school friends came over to my house and they somehow found mom's old liquor cabinet. They spiked the drinks and..." Edward shuddered as he looked at Natalie.
"Hey!! You're mean!!" Natalie said.
"Oh? But you were on fire!! You won't believe what she did!!"
"Stop."
"No!! She nearly burnt down my house!!" Edward chuckled.
"Did not!!"
"Did!! Nearly!! There was this girl I used to like... I told her how I felt during a round of Truth or Dare. She laughed it off. But Natalie took it more personally than I did!! She yelled at her for being insensitive and... urgh... I can't even remember..."
"whore!" Natalie said in a small voice.
"Jeez! Yeah! And then... she picked up a half-burning log out of the fireplace and ran after that girl!! Thank God, the log only fell on the food table which was granite." he laughed.
"Wow!! I salute you, man!! She's a piece of work!! Hats off!" Sean lifted his imaginary hat and bowed.
"Hey!!" Natalie elbowed him.
"Okay, let's get started on deciding where to crash. Alyssia is clearly not going anywhere like this... Edward and I have some work at the court. We'll be back tomorrow morning. I'll meet you at school!! You have to keep an eye on Al!!" Sean said.
"Okay, I'm here!!" Aaron said.
"C'ya, Agent Grumpy and Dumbelina!!!" Edward waved. Before Natalie could grab him, he sprinted out of the mansion towards the car.
"I promise you..." Sean said politely.
"Thanks, man!" Aaron said without listening.
"Huh?"
"You said you won't say it!! Right?"
"He didn't even say anything. Who's dumb now?" Natalie scoffed.
"Haha. I was saying... I promise... that you will never... never hear the end of this!! This is going down in history books... will be written in gold!! Agent Grumpy and Dumbelina!!" Sean said dramatically. Natalie and Aaron shot murderous looks at him. "That is my cue! I'm coming, Your Regency!!" he ran. Natalie and Aaron looked at each other and sighed.
"Never mention it again!!" Natalie crashed next to Alyssia.
"Never!! Besides, we won't have to..." Aaron looked at the door. Alyssia was mumbling in her sleep.
"Let's put her in bed!" Natalie suggested.

*Next Morning*

"Rise and shine!!!" Natalie sing-songed.
"Huh? Argh!!" Alyssia rubbed her temples as she sat up.
"Here!! Aaron said it'll calm your nerves... blah blah. Drink it at your own peril!!"
"Uh, thanks!" she took the glass. "What happened?"
"You were drunk!! Did I say drunk? Oh, no! I meant DWUNK!!" Aaron said as he entered.
"Oh, God!! I knew there was something wrong. I knew it wasn't water... but..."
"Vodka!!"
"Woah!! What did I do?"
"Ahha!! Here's Agent Grumpy, Dumbelina and Miss DWUNK!" Edward laughed.
"You say that one more time and I'll kick you in the face!! You'll wish you were dead!!" Natalie said.
"Woah! Point taken!!" Edward surrendered.

"Are you sure you're okay going to school today?" Natalie asked.
"Yeah. I'm fine! Just a little headache." Alyssia sighed. "Don't ever let me drink again!!"
"Can't promise!!" Natalie laughed.
"Why didn't you have breakfast? And you, Aaron?"
"Well..." Natalie looked at Aaron.
"There was... porridge!" Aaron said.
"So?"
"So... after last evening... I don't think I'll ever look at a porridge the same way..." he scrunched his nose.
"Oh, I second that!" Natalie shuddered.
"What? Why?"
"Well... you puked... and well, you said it looked like... YUCK!!" Natalie shuddered again. Alyssia buried her face in her hands.

"Allo, Agent...oww!!" Sean got smacked in the face by Aaron.
"Don't you dare!!" he scowled.
"You're spending too much time with Natalie!" Sean rubbed his nose.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You sound like her!! All rude and scary!!"
"If you want me to puke... bring me porridge. Thanks to Alyssia... it has become very easy!!" Aaron retched.

"You don't have to come along!! I can finish detentions on my own!!" Natalie groaned.
"I know. I'm just waiting by the lake!! It can be dangerous being out here alone!!" Aaron said.
"I can take care of myself."
"I've heard that."
"So... leave!!"
"Nope! First, you tell me... are you trying to make a record of getting the highest number of detentions ever??"
"No!"
"Then why are you serving detention? It's literally every single day... ever since you've been here."
"I don't know!!"
"You don't know why you got into detention?" Aaron scoffed.
"I sneezed! And that old bat... I mean Professor Abbott squealed...Detention, Miss Brown!! Seven in the evening!!" she imitated Beatrix.
"You must have done something. You're a hothead! Must've said something! Now go! Clean the dock!!" Aaron passed her a mop and a bucket.
"Urghh, alright!! At this rate, I'll end up scrubbing the entire school..." she grabbed the mop and started working. "Brrr!! It's frickin' cold!!!" Natalie yelled as she put her hand in the lake.
"Who told you to do that?" Aaron laughed.
"Stop laughing!!" she said.
"Didn't bring your... headphones today?" Aaron asked, burying another laugh.
"What? No! I... uh... forgot." she recalled the last time she served detention with the headphones.
"Oh? Okay!" Aaron turned away and laughed quietly.

Around 7:45 pm, Natalie was winding up her work. As she did so, she started humming One more light by Linkin Park. Aaron walked closer to listen.
"What's that?" he asked.
"Huh?"
"That... what you're humming!"
"Oh, a song!"
"Jesus!! And then you say I shouldn't have named you Dumbelina! I mean what song??"
"Urgh... One more light!" she said irritably. "Like it?" she asked.
"Never heard of it! But if you have the song... I can listen."
"I don't have my phone. It's useless here, you know. But I can sing!! If you want!" she said.
"Nah, I think I hear you a lot already!! Can't take it anymore!!"
"Hey!! I'm a good singer!!"
"I heard. It was good. But no!"
"Who cares if one more light goes out?
In a sky of a million stars...
It flickers, flickers..." she started singing loudly. Aaron covered his ears but then let go. She was now singing with the mop stick as her mic. It made Aaron laugh. But Natalie didn't notice.
"It's almost 8!! Are you done? Or wanna set a concert or something?"
"Pfft! Done. Coming!!" she closed the broom closet and ran towards him. "Why do you always stay?" she asked.
"Why do you talk so much? Do you ever shut up?"
"Argh!! I was going to say Thank you but... urgh you don't deserve it. You're a jerk!!" she stomped off. Aaron shook his head and sighed.