Book One: Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children (My Remake)

Chapter 7~Enjoying the Show?

The awkward silence and strange glances between Jacob and I were the only things that happened...for about 10 minutes. Emma announced that we were going to jump off on her quie which I assumed was her giving Jacob a death stare when he asked the final time when we were going to jump and her annoyance level swelled up.

I was the last to get off and tripped when Jacob suddenly left without telling me and he hauled me along with him, probably forgetting we were attached. I mumbled a curse to him but rubbed it off when he gave me a glance mixed with worry and forgiveness.

We made our way through a dense forest on foot with Emma next to Jacob and I with Millard. A girl who could make fire with her hands, a confused teenage boy caked in mud, a really confused teenage girl also caked in mud and an invisible boy. Oh boy, were we a sight.

Millard hummed a different tune as he kicked little stones in his path. Wanting to start a conversation I glanced toward Jacob who was looking down at the dirt when I caught a sight of Emma as she held onto his elbow. She seemed determined to make her way to wherever we were going and I didn't want to disrupt her concentration, mostly because she could flip out any moment. I turned to my left, watching Millard clutch his leather book I tried to think where I'd seen it before. It's so familiar!

The forest was surprisingly dark since the twisting branches loomed over all of it. Vegetation wasn't as lucky, patches of weeds dominated over small bunches of grass but even those were lacklustre. Soon we passed through a small bush and entered a more cheerful sight.

A lawn that seemed to have been watered daily expanded around the lot with flowers in bloom that striped and coordinated with it all. It was quite a sight I hadn't seen in ages and I couldn't help but swivel my head around trying to tell what flowers they were.

But the one thing that really made me take a small step back was the house. Unlike it's damaged, crumbly and weed infested counterpart this house seemed to have come straight out of an author's imagination. It was perfect. The windows were polished and shiny instead of being so dirty you couldn't even look through them. The wooden boards and perfectly coated paint stayed firmly onto the house. The grass and flowers that pushed against the house were the kinder cousins to weeds and vines.

Jacob and I were directed onto a flag stone path up to the house and onto porch steps that seemed to have been painted the day before and dried over night. Emma let go of Jacob's elbow and reached for the door when Millard spoke.

"Wait, their shoes are caked with filth." I glanced down to my tights and held back a smirk or clever remark, it wasn't just our shoes covered in dirt. "We can't have them tracking in mud. The Bird'll have an attack." I rolled my eyes but did as he said when Jacob started climbing out of his shoes. When we finished and Jacob had nearly tumbled over only to be caught by Emma she pushed us in.

We entered a once dark and demeaning foyer now turned cheerful and greeting then down a hall that I remembered Jacob and I needed to stumble over broken furniture just to get through. We passed the staircase where I met eyes with a few curious faces between the banisters and entered the dining room with a long and gleaming table lined with chairs. It was as if I'd entered a time machine and the house I once knew changed into its former glory.

At last we reached a small room that looked out into the back. "Keep hold of them while I inform the headmistress," Emma said to Millard. I felt a gentle hand grasp onto my shoulder and I tingled. When she entered a pair of doors the grasp weakened and then finally fell away.

I felt a small smile creeping its way to my lips. "What? You don't think I'll hit you with a pan?" I asked, turning toward him.

"Not particularly," he hinted.