Author's Note:
In honour of Mother's Day, I wrote this little story, because (you have to admit, Eva Green played an amazing Miss Peregrine) and Miss Peregrine is an amazing mother.
This is my little way of saying, "Thank You", to every mother out there.
/
Mother's Day:
"Jake . . . Jake . . . Jake!" "What?!" A startled black haired, blue eyed boy, no older than sixteen shouted in surprise as he jumped ten feet high, "I'm sorry. Your door was open and I just wanted to know what you were doing."
A small, curly blond haired girl in a slightly puffy pink dress said with a sad look in her eyes. Calming his racing heart, the boy put down the tool he had been working with and smiled as he opened his arms, inviting the little girl in for a hug.
Smiling, the little girl climbed onto the bed with the blue sheets and went to hug the boy. "It's alright Claire, here, let me show you." Jake said with a smile as he hugged Claire, before setting her down in his lap.
"Enoch had leant me a few of his tools, but I still couldn't get the wings quite right until a few minutes ago." Jake said picking up a silver chain with a small, silver pendent attached to it. The pendent was shaped like a bird.
But not just any bird.
A falcon.
"Oooh, so pretty." Little Claire said in wonder as she stared at the necklace that dazzled in the late morning sun. Jake laughed at the little girl's expression and set the necklace down, reaching for the small blue box not too far away from him.
"It's a gift for Miss Peregrine. I had planned on giving it to her earlier as a thank you for letting me stay with all of you, but," He paused to laugh, ruffling the little girl's hair, "I didn't have everything I needed, so I thought I'd make it a Mother's Day gift." He finished with a smile.
"Mother's Day?" Claire asked confused, tilting her head slightly to the side as she looked over her shoulder at her housemate in confusion. Jake laughed. "Mother's Day, is a day when children do all sort of things to say thank you to their mothers.
I wanted to thank Miss Peregrine and I know she isn't my mother, but she is our Ymbryne and that's close enough." Jake said with a smile after he explained it to the little curly haired blond who sat in his lap on the bed.
Suddenly Claire pouted. "I want to do something for Miss Peregrine too. When's Mother's Day?" She asked looking up at him, her eyes suddenly very bright with excitement as she nearly bounced up and down in his lap.
Jake was about to answer, a sheepish look on his face, when someone interrupted him. "Today." The two of them turned to see Enoch and Olive in the doorway, walking onto the room, their shoes tapping against the floorboards.
"I had actually come to get my tweezers though." Enoch said as he looked at Jake expectantly. "Oh, right!" Jake said leaning over a little as he grabbed the tool in question, before sitting upright again and looking to the newcomers.
"Thanks again, Enoch." Jake said giving Enoch back his tweezers. "Why were you asking about Mother's Day, Claire?" Olive asked sitting down on the bed as she looked at the little curly haired girl in her housemate's lap.
"Cause Jake's made something for Miss P and I wanna make something for her too!" Claire said with bright eyes as she looked at the older girl. "Well if I knew you were only doing this to get attention Jake, then I wouldn't have leant you my tools."
Enoch said crossing his arms as he looked at Jake with a frown. Jake rolled his eyes. "I'm not trying to play favourites Enoch. I just wanted to do something nice for Miss Peregrine. It's not every day that someone just invites you into their home, you know."
"He has a point." Olive said with a slight shrug and a carefree smile. Enoch rolled his eyes. "Whatever. But just for the record, Miss Peregrine didn't invite you. You showed up." Enoch said matter-of-factly.
"Aaand yet she didn't kick me out. Soooo, I would like to say, thank you." Jake said slowly before turning back to the necklace and clipping the chain together. Enoch just rolled his eyes again, but came closer to inspect Jake's work.
Olive and Claire were looking at the necklace in wonder, both already formulating their own plans to get their Ymbryne something special. "The chain is a bit bent and the wings aren't exactly the right length, but other than that, it's not half bad."
Enoch complemented as he studied the necklace Jake had in his hand, nodding approvingly. "So I take that as a, 'It's good enough'?" Jake asked hopefully as he glanced up at Enoch who slowly nodded.
"It's not the best, and certainly not anywhere near perfect enough for Miss Peregrine, BUT, it's the thought that counts, and I suppose you've put a lot of thought into it." Enoch nodded, not fully realizing what he said until he froze at Olive's smirk.
"What?" "Enoch . . . you just said something nice." Olive smirked, her eyes twinkling with mischief. Enoch scoffed. "No, I said it isn't near perfect for Miss Peregrine. I insulted his work." Enoch denied.
"But you also said that it's the thought that counts, and that I obviously put a lot of thought into it." Jake said with a smile, catching on to what Olive was doing. "Yes, but I couldn't exactly tell you that it's terrible, now could I?"
Enoch asked sharply, huffing in indifference. Jake and Olive looked at each other, their grins growing wide while Claire watched with barely contained laughter from Jake's lap. "Are you saying that you can do better?"
Jake challenged. "Of course I can do better." Enoch said staring daggers at the smiling Jake. "Well then it's settled. We'll all make a gift for Miss Peregrine for Mother's Day." Olive said victoriously from her place on the bed, a large grin on her face.
Enoch's jaw dropped open. "I, I never said-" "No, but you said you can do better and I made this for Miss Peregrine for Mother's Day, and thereby, you just agreed to make a gift for her as well." Jake said triumphantly.
"I . . . I . . ." Enoch huffed, before the slightest of smiles melted onto his face. "Well played." HE congratulated them and Jake smiled, giving a fake bow, careful not to knock Claire off his lap. "Come on Enoch, we have to tell the others!"
Olive said excitedly as she jumped off the bed and grabbed Enoch by the arm, pulling him out of the doorway. "And I need Emma's help for the surprise I'm planning and-" Her voice was muffled as they she and a startled Enoch disappeared into the hallway.
Jake and Claire gave each other one look before Claire burst out into a mountain of giggles and Jake chuckled at what had just happened and the shocked look on Enoch's face as he was dragged away by the arm.
/
"So is everything ready?" Jake asked walking into the kitchen. Emma and Olive stood by the counter, a cake between them while an excited Claire bounced up and down from beside Jake. "Yes, everything should be ready.
We're just adding the finishing touches to the cake." Emma nodded as she frosted the cake Olive held. Jake nodded, before looking to Horace who had a huge grin on his face. "Why so happy Horace?"
"Well, as you know I'm not one to usually break the rules, but this is rather exciting." The proper boy said with an almost giddy expression. "I know what you mean. Miss Peregrine can walk in at any moment and see everything." Olive nodded, a nervous smile on her face.
"No, Fiona and Hugh are keeping her distracted in the garden remember? Besides, she won't make it passed the front door without us knowing. Bronwyn is standing watch." Emma said adding the last of the icing before turning to Jake.
"Jake, could you go see how the twins and Millard are doing with the decorations in the parlour?" Jake nodded and ran off to check on the younger ones. "Horace, go set the table. Miss Peregrine will no doubt get suspicious if we're not ready for dinner."
Emma said to the blond boy who quickly nodded, a smile still on his face as he ransacked the cupboard for plates. "Do you think she'll notice that we're hiding something?" Olive asked as she set the cake down on the counter, looking for something underneath, in the cupboards.
"I think she might already know. Most of us have been trying to avoid her like the plague and those of us who haven't, other than Enoch, might as well, just of outright told her. If it wasn't for Jake's quick thinking earlier, she would have caught me sneaking her gift into the parlour."
Emma said her eyes wide with exasperation as she quickly grabbed some of the silverware from the drawers underneath the counter and went to join Horace in setting the dining room table.
/
"As lovely as your flowers are Fiona, I honestly don't have any more time for this. I'm behind schedule, I should have started making dinner nearly ten and a half minutes ago." Miss Peregrine said with her arms crossed as she glanced at the boy and girl in front of her.
Fiona and Hugh shared a panicked look before Hugh quickly grabbed hold of Miss Peregrine's hand and dragged her further into the garden, nearly making her lose her footing. "Hugh, what are you doing? Let go of me."
Miss Peregrine said with wide eyes as she was dragged towards the farthest side of the garden, nearly tripping more than once in her heals. When Hugh finally let go of her, her fringe had fallen into her face.
"Polite persons do not drag other people through an entire garden." She scolded as she righted her blue-black hair back into proper shape by wiping it away with her hand and tucking the stubborn lock behind her ear.
"Sorry Miss Peregrine, but I just wanted to show you these flowers my bees had pollinated before lunch. Fiona says they're called Anemones, or Wildflowers." Hugh said quickly, motioning to the white flowers nervously.
His bees were buzzing rather loudly above him as well. Miss Peregrine looked at the two children and crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes. "Enough. You children are hiding something and I want to know what."
Fiona laughed nervously as she looked at Hugh, who had wide eyes. "Well?" Miss Peregrine asked looking at the two children that had been dragging her about the garden for the last twenty minutes, showing her every flower they could think of.
Alma is quite certain there were a few of the flowers missing while there were others she had never even seen before now suddenly in their place. "Miss Peregrine please, it's a surprise. You'll find out eventually, but, we can't let you go into the house right now."
Hugh tried to explain. "Then when can we go in? I have to make dinner." Miss Peregrine asked exasperatedly. "After Jake gives his signal." Fiona said assuring while Alma frowned. "Jacob? Was this his plan?
Is that why he's been avoiding me like I'm death itself?" Fiona and Hugh's eyes widened, and they quickly shook their heads. "No, well, yes, it was kind of his idea, but he didn't mean too!" Fiona said quickly, Hugh nodding vigorously beside her.
"Yes, he, Enoch, Emma and Olive-" "Enoch, Olive and him," Miss Peregrine interrupted, nodding for Hugh to continue. "Sorry, Enoch, Olive and him have been working really hard all day to get your surprise ready and-"
Hugh's eyes widened and he quickly slapped both hands over his mouth. "My surprise?" Miss Peregrine asked confused, looking between Fiona and Hugh who slowly nodded. "We weren't suppose to tell you that though."
Fiona said glaring at Hugh before hitting him in the arm. "Ow! It was an accident!" Hugh said indignantly as he rubbed his now sore upper arm. Suddenly all three of them turned when they heard quickly approaching foot falls.
"Fiona! Hugh! Miss P!" A slightly out of breath Claire came running up to them, Bronwyn not far behind, huge smiles on their faces, that only succeeded in confusing Alma more. "Come on! Dinner's ready!"
She shouted grabbing Miss Peregrine's hand and leading her back to the house while Bronwyn walked with Fiona and Hugh, whispering something that Alma tried to hear, but couldn't because Claire was incisively talking beside her and asking her a lot of odd things.
Miss Peregrine was certain that she heard "parlour" somewhere within the whispers, but had to quickly turn her attention back onto Claire as the girl realized that she was trying to eavesdrop.
Usually Alma would leave the children to their murmurings, but she was rather worried. This surprise they had concocted better not be anything dangerous or else she's grounding Jacob for a month!
/
"Hurry, they're coming!" Millard shouted from the front door just as Fiona and Hugh came running in, telling everyone to get ready. "Alright, everyone, get into the hall!" Emma called as she rushed out of the parlour, the twins behind her.
Jake and Enoch quickly closed the parlour doors and Olive and Horace came rushing into the hallway, just as Bronwyn rushed in from the front door. "Miss Peregrine's on her way!" The young brunette shouted as she joined everyone by the stairs.
"Alright, now remember the plan! Act natural during dinner and when Miss Peregrine tells us to get ready for movie night, Jake and I are going to stay with Miss Peregrine and help her with the dishes while Enoch and Olive finish up in the parlour.
The rest of you are going to get dressed and when you're done, wait outside the parlour, I'll take things from there." Emma said quickly while everyone nodded. "-nd after that Millard took Mr Bear and had tea with us!"
A happy Claire squealed in delight as she skipped into the house, Miss Peregrine behind her. The Ymbryne clad in blue, closed the door before turning a suspicious eye to the parlour, making many of the children nervous.
When she finally looked at them though, they felt like they had a frog stuck in their throats and butterflies riding bicycles, while doing cartwheels in their stomachs. Alma raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow as she turned her blue eyes on her children.
Every one of them looks nervous to the bone. Whatever they'd been planning was obviously something fairly big. "We've taken the liberty of preparing dinner while you were out Miss Peregrine."
Emma said in as smooth a voice as she could muster. Though, confused and very worried by her children's strange behaviour, Alma just slowly nodded, following the children into the dining room.
/
"Well, that was lovely, children, but why don't you all go freshen up while I do the dishes?" Miss Peregrine asked after everyone had had dinner and the younger children looked like they were about to burst out of their seats at any given moment.
"We'll help you." Emma quickly offered as she and Jake stood up. Alma raised an eyebrow at the unexpected assistance and looked to Jacob who only gave her one of those "you'll see" smiles that made her more nervous than anything else.
She felt like an elephant who was about to learn how to walk a tightrope while thirty feet up in the air with no safety net at the bottom. She had hoped to catch a glimpse of whatever was going on in the parlour, but apparently the children had already foreseen her trying to do that.
Clever.
She slowly nodded as she started gathering all the plates, not saying a word and just observing them silently as she tried to fight down her own nerves and the feeling of impending danger to whatever it was she doesn't know about.
/
"Alright, is everyone ready . . ." Miss Peregrine asked, but paused in confusion when she saw everyone gathered in the hall instead off in the parlour. She slowly turned to Emma and Jake, silently demanding an answer.
Jake stepped forward, a smile on his face.
"Miss Peregrine, do you know what today is?" Jacob asked with the same grin on his face. Quickly, Alma racked through her mind . . . May . . . it was May. "May 14th ?" Miss Peregrine asked more than said as she looked on in confusion at the gathered children.
Jake just nodded sagely while Emma gave her one of those "go on" looks that she usually used on the children. "And?" Millard asked, edging her to continue. She raised an eyebrow. "Sunday?"
"No." Emma rolled her eyes and suddenly took her by the arm. "Miss Peregrine," She started before looking to Enoch and Jake, nodding her head. The two boys smiled – Enoch actually smiled – and opened the doors to the parlour.
What awaited inside made Alma gasp.
"Happy Mother's Day." The children finished in unison while Emma escorted Miss Peregrine inside. Flowers were hanging from the walls, petals streamed all over the floor while in the centre of the room was a small pile of wrapped boxes, right in the middle of the couches.
A small table was underneath them, while colourful, crayon pictures – drawn by Claire, Bronwyn and the twins no doubt – hang from the walls, lighting up the room, a small banner hang on the farthest wall, reading: "Happy Mother's Day"
"But . . ." Alma stuttered, entirely caught off guard by the gesture. She had been so caught up in looking around the room, she hadn't even noticed that Emma had helped her down onto one of the couches.
Claire had jumped up next to her while Jake stood behind Emma. Hugh and Fiona sat on the floor by the table looking up at her while Enoch, Olive, Bronwyn and Horace sat on the opposite couch, looking at her expectantly.
Millard on the other hand walked over to her with a white box with a red ribbon wrapped around it and placed it in her lap. "But . . . I'm not your mother, you didn't have to do this." Miss Peregrine stuttered, surprised and completely disorientated.
"Don't be silly, of course you are." Emma said hugging her arm while many of the other children nodded in agreement. "You might be out Ymbryne, but you are more a mother to most of us, than many of our own mothers could even ever hope to be."
Enoch said and Alma felt like crying all of a sudden, but held back her tears as she smiled shakily, her eyes stinging as every child nodded in agreement and smiled lovingly back at her.
"Open up your present!" Claire said excitedly from beside her as she gently tapped Alma on the arm.
Reaching down with shaking hands, Miss Peregrine started to undo the red bow from the white box. When she lifted the lid, she smiled and looked at Olive who blushed slightly, hiding her had in Enoch's shoulder.
"What is it?" Hugh asked curiously and Alma reached down into the box and took out a picture frame with a photograph inside. It was one of those that had been lost when the house was bombed.
But this one was special. It was the photograph Abe had taken when Alma had introduced Olive to them all for the very first time. Alma had adopted her from another loop. Everyone had smiles on their faces.
"Open this one next!" Claire said excitedly as she jumped from the couch and ran over to Miss Peregrine, a pink box with a yellow bow in hand. Alma smiled as she took the box from her youngest charge, "Thank you."
She whispered as she helped Claire back onto the couch. Turning back to the box, she repeated the process again and smiled once more when she took out a beautiful black book with some of the photographs Jake had taken of them all, inside.
"It's from me and Bronwyn. Emma helped us bind it and Jake helped us get the pictures." Claire said happily while Bronwyn just smiled. "It's beautiful, thank you." Alma said giving Claire a small hug from the one side.
"Open mine next!" Hugh said excitedly as he jumped up from the floor. This continued for a long time until Alma came to the last box. A blue box with a white ribbon. She took the box from Millard and looked at Jacob who slowly nodded, a slightly nervous smile on his face.
His gift was the last, and Alma didn't know what to expect.
Hugh had gotten her a new teacup, with black and yellow stripes, while Millard had gotten her a teacup with soccer balls painted on it, Emma had given her a new pipe to replace the old one, Enoch had made her a pocket-watch-formed picture frame, Fiona had made her a banquet of flowers, Horace had given her a new book and the twins had come together and gave her a stone bird she had first been shocked to receive before being reassured by Enoch that he helped them carve it from stone.
Slowly she opened the box and gasped when she saw what rested inside. She looked over at Jake, a confused look on her face – though she was certain it looked more overwhelmed – as she looked at him for an answer.
He shrugged.
"You invited me into your home and took me in even after I just showed up out of the blue, giving you little choice on the matter. You also saved me from Baron and gave yourself up. I guess I just wanted to say thank you for being there for me."
Jake said, a small smile on his face, while Alma now fully cried. All the kind words from the rest of the children and the gifts had really gotten to her. "Thank you . . . all of you." She said looking at each and every one of them with a loving smile.
"Of course. You're our mother." Emma said with a smile as she hugged the Ymbryne. Soon, Alma found herself in the middle of a large group hug and laughed as tears of joy fell from her eyes.
"Either I'm the luckiest Ymbryne to ever live, or I have the most loving children I could ever ask for." Miss Peregrine said lightly wiping away her tears as she smiled at her children. "No, we're the lucky ones." Jake said and everyone looked to him for explanation.
"Because we have you Miss Peregrine. And no one, not even the hallows or the Wights, can ever take you away from us." Alma couldn't help but smile at that as they once more shared a group hug and she felt the tug in her heart.
Yes.
She had the best children in the world.
And she was the happiest mother, in the world as well.
/
The End.