A/N: I feel like shit. Feel sorry for me or I'll beat you over the head with a baseball bat.
Well, I just accidentally screwed up the desktop on this computer. I was looking at the resolution and was playing with it to see what it would look like in 600x800, and I hit apply by accident when I thought I hit cancel. Lucky me, I had to piece the desktop icons back together from memory. It's still not right and now I know my mom is going to be irritated at me for screwing up the desktop. : grunts:
Update! I feel better now that someone actually reviewed! . THANK YOU FINNEGAN IRISH!
I'm glad people like the Asa/Morgan relationship… or lack there of. Lol
For those wanting to see some stuff, I have a bunch of new pictures up.
Check out my scraps on my page fatalrob0t. deviantart. com
Take out the spaces and you'll be able to view it. not allowing me to put up links anymore. -.-;
Chapter Eighteen
The Monday back had everyone ready to leave for summer break. Even Charlie, who knew that he hardly had any chance of going anywhere for the next few weeks, was feeling ready to leave for a little while. However, he first had to deal with his end of term exams, which he loathed even the idea of them.
Olivia seemed to fair well with getting close to Ada, though she did have to get past Manfred and Zelda to do so. However, once she had her away from them, Ada seemed to become almost normal, though she seemed a little spacey compared to how Olivia had seen her when she wasn't completely hypnotized.
Morgan seemed to be avoiding Asa like the bubonic plague. Asa noticed this when, on Wednesday, he saw her coming down the corridor with her book-bag on her shoulder, and she looked up at him and immediately ran for another hallway. He was faster than she was, so he ran after her. He missed her completely in the hallway as other students were walking out of classrooms at the time.
He frowned at this. She had been acting weird around him ever since she first showed up at the school. Then, when he figured out just exactly why she was acting weird around him, she took off whenever she saw him. He touched his hair, which was clean, and then sniffed under his arm. It couldn't be because he smelled funny.
On Thursday, there was a strange occurrence in the hallway. Tancred was in a foul mood because one of his teachers told him he needed to improve on something and one of the "troublesome trio", as Mr. MacGregor had claimed them to be during art class, bumped into him.
Corazon apologized repeatedly, blinking large dark eyes at him. Tancred's hair crackled dangerously and a wind storm was suddenly created in the hallway. Corazon had to hold down her skirt because it kept blowing up with the wind. Then, finally, she was rammed into the wall by someone unable to handle the wind.
What made it strange was that the wind immediately died down when Corazon started crying and sniffling because Tancred was being mean to her. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please stop crying!" he whimpered as he patted her on the back and tried to calm her down.
Charlie had seen the entire thing and wondered if it was just a clever ploy to make a boy behave toward her because he had made her cry. He'd only seen it happen once with her and that was him, he had immediately tried to comfort her because she was crying.
On Friday, Charlie ran out to the bus with Fidelio behind him, trying to escape the school as quickly as possible. Everyone seemed in a hurry to leave, though, when he saw Olivia towing Ada behind her as though she were a doll, he knew why. Asa was behind her and enclosing the distance.
Olivia yelled at him over her shoulder, and then sprinted on the bus, leaving both Ada and her trunk beside the bus. The driver grunted as he got out and put the trunks on the bus before giving Asa a stern look. Then, he walked onto the bus without a word, Asa behind him.
When the busses started to leave, Charlie watched the purple bus until it disappeared over a hill. When his stop finally came, he walked home, Morgan chattering beside him like a happy bird. He said good bye to her and then walked into his home, narrowly missing Grandma Bone running into him as she walked out with her hat on her head and her purse in her hand.
Maisie greeted Charlie with a wide smile and hugged him before setting him down to dinner. He told her about the week and what they planned to do with Ada, watching his Grandma Jones gasp and react in all the right places.
Then, he walked up to his room and collapsed on his bed, a smile on his face as he thought about what he was going to do the next day. This time, he went to bed in his pajamas, fully ready to deal with whatever Grandma Bone, his horrible Aunts or the Bloors had in store for him.
Charlie knocked on his Uncle's door gently. When he heard Uncle Paton's voice, he poked his head in and then walked in completely. Uncle Paton looked to Charlie after a moment, his nose almost buried in a book. "Do you have anything more?"
Charlie shook his head. "She only sings that verse and what sounds to be a chorus, but I remember something Mr. Pilgrim said."
"Who is Mr. Pilgrim?" asked Uncle Paton.
"He's is one of the music teachers. He lives in one of the towers and stares out the window all day, or plays strange music on his piano," said Charlie. "Anyway, he was playing that song and I asked him what it was. He said it's called 'The Song of the Red Tree'. I hope that's helpful."
Uncle Paton narrowed his eyes in thought. "Song of the Red Tree—spacey—plays piano—" He seemed in his own world until the doorbell rang.
Charlie bid his uncle good day and then ran down the stairs. Charlie opened the door and was nearly tackled to the floor by Olivia. "Charlie! We have her! We have her!"
He looked through Olivia's fire engine red hair to Fidelio and Ada. He grinned. "Good, then we can take her over to her parents' home today, right?"
Ada blinked. "What about my parents?"
Fidelio smiled weakly. "She's been a bit out of it, but otherwise she's all right."
Morgan ran up to the house, smiling broadly and panting. "Oi! Aren't you lot going to wait for me!"
Charlie laughed and peeled Olivia off of him long enough to be hugged by Emma and Morgan. They stayed around long enough to eat lunch with Maisie, telling her what they were going to do, and in Morgan's case, telling it with obvious movement that resulted in her knocking her glass of water onto the floor. Maisie laughed and Morgan cleaned up the mess with some help from Charlie's Grandma Jones.
Then, they walked out and into town. As soon as they reached the area of Darkly Wynd, Charlie started feeling uncertain. He felt as though someone was watching him from far off.
Ada looked around, looking worried. "We… we moved here because Dr. Bloor said I would be treated here for whatever was causing me to black out. But I don't remember being treated by anyone other than that nurse in the infirmary, and that was for a few scratches I'd received from scraping my knees on the floor."
Charlie frowned, heart pounding in his chest as they rounded onto Rose Street. Morgan mussed up Charlie's hair as she looked about. "It doesn't look like anything bad is going to happen, Charlie."
Charlie stopped when he saw a woman with red boots and a long black dress at the Isidore house. Charlie frowned. "Aunt Venetia."
Morgan pulled everyone into a bush just as Aunt Venetia turned around to look in their direction. When she turned around, Charlie could hear her talking to Mrs. Isidore. "Oui, Madame. She has run away from the hospital and they haven't seen her about. I am certain they will find her before something horrible happens to her."
Mrs. Isidore started crying and nodded. "Merci, Merci. Thank you for your help, Miss Yewbeam." Then, she walked inside and closed the door.
Aunt Venetia walked away from the house, looking around for a second before chuckling in a low voice and walking away down the street, turning away from Rose Street.
Ada frowned. "But, I'm not crazy."
"No, you're endowed," said Charlie without looking at her. When he was sure his aunt wasn't going to come back he hopped out with Ada in tow. "We're going to show your mother that you are all right."
Suddenly, Charlie was tackled to the grass by a flash of red hair. "I have him!" called Asa.
Morgan leapt out of the bush with a growl. "No you don't!"
Asa was thrown off of Charlie, skidding to a halt on the asphalt of the road. Morgan yelled at Charlie and the others. "You lot deal with Ada, I'll deal with this twit!" Then, she ran off after Asa.
Charlie nodded and grabbed Ada, taking her to the front door of her home. He hurriedly knocked on the door, looking around nervously for his aunts or Manfred. The door opened and Olivia grabbed Mrs. Isidore around the waist, hugging her as she called out to her. "Please, let us in! Please!"
"What? I told you children! Please stop tormenting us in such a fashion! She even escaped from that hospital! Leave us be!" cried Mrs. Isidore.
Then, she stopped, seeing Ada. She gasped and ran inside. "Inside! Inside now!" said Ada quickly as she leapt from Charlie.
They closed the door on the battle being waged outside. Asa was tossed across the street by Morgan. He hit the side of a car parked beside the sidewalk, falling back against the hot ground, panting.
Morgan came over and crouched over him, taking him by the collar so he could see her face. "Don't you ever attack my friends, Asa Pike. EVER!" Then, she punched him on the nose and pulled him onto the grass of someone's lawn.
Asa, however, grabbed Morgan's ankle when she tried to walk away from him and wrestled her under him once again. His mouth and nose were bleeding as he peered into her face, panting harder than before. "You need to stop acting so tough, MacGregor. You can't beat me."
Morgan wrestled him under her, locking his legs with hers as she held his arms down beside his head. "Leave me alone, Asa. Leave all of us alone," she growled before getting up and kicking him on the side.
Asa laughed as he held his freshly bruised ribcage. He watched her walk away to the house before getting up very carefully. He would deal with her the next time he saw her in school. He wouldn't have Manfred around him as much and he would need a new form of entertainment.
Inside the Isidore house, Mrs. Isidore was looking at Ada as though she was a ghost. Ada looked to her mother, large, doe like eyes wide and tearful as she looked to her. "Mama? Mama! I'm all right! See?" she sniffled.
Mrs. Isidore gaped wide eyed at her daughter. "Ada? Ada, why are you here? You're supposed to be at the hospital! If Papa ever saw you here right now, he would be greatly upset with you!"
Ada ran over to her mother and hugged her. "Mama! Please! It's all right! I'm not crazy! My friends kept me away from that horrible Manfred Bloor so that I would remember everything and not black out so much. They couldn't keep me away from him all the time, but they did their best."
Mrs. Isidore put her hands on Ada's rounded cheeks and smiled down at her daughter. "Ada, I missed you so much. They said you were getting worse and that you would soon be unable to see us any longer. Whenever we went to see you at the hospital, you would just sit in a chair like a limp doll, staring into nothing! Or worse, you would be mumbling and staring out a window as though it would talk back!"
Charlie stood up from the heap of friends that had landed on the floor when they leapt inside the house. He frowned as he walked toward Mrs. Isidore. "They were lying to you, ma'am. That woman that was here not long before we showed up was my Aunt Venetia. She's a horrible woman, along with her three sister, one of whom is my grandmother. The Bloors are just as horrible, lying to you and setting up a charade to fool you into leaving your daughter in their care."
Mrs. Isidore looked to Ada, patting her on the cheek again. "But, what about her strange spells of amnesia and her saying such strange things from no where?"
"I… believe," said Fidelio, though all you could see was his hand waving in the air. He pulled himself from Emma and Olivia and stood up. "I believe she is endowed, like Charlie here, or our friend Emma. She has powers that she may not know how to control."
"She has the power of prophesy," said a deep voice.
Mr. Isidore, a tall and stocky man with a reddish face walked in through the front door. "She has what my grandmamma had, though I didn't know what it was until now."
Ada ran voer to her father and hugged him. "Papa! Papa! I'm so glad to see you!"
Mrs. Isidore smiled and kissed Charlie's cheeks. "Merci, eh…"
"Charlie Bone, ma'am. That's my friend Fidelio Gunn, Emma Tolley and Olivia Vertigo. The girl outside is Morgan MacGregor. We're all here to help Ada," he said with a smile.
Ada giggled and kissed Charlie's cheeks as well. "Merci, Charlie. Thank you all for helping me."
Charlie grinned as Olivia hopped once, giggling. "Yay! I'm glad we could help!"
When they walked out, Charlie and his friends walked together back to his home. When he picked up some things for him to take with him, they walked to Morgan's home where they stayed the night, laughing at Mr. MacGregor's jokes and impersonations of Dr. Bloor and Manfred and having a good time.
It really was going to be a good summer break after all.