AN UPDATE TO THE AGES OF ASTRID DYLAN AND ARTHUR WERE MADE. ASTRID IS NOW 20, DYLAN 18 AND ARTHUR IS 17
A young woman arrives at a large steel gate rusted and covered with vines. She is rather pretty, no older than 23 with dark brown hair and rosy cheeks with lips to match. She noticed that placed in the middle of the gate was a shield with the family crest and motto, though it is hard to read. Looking to the right she found an intercom, approached it and pushed the only button available.
"Hello?" She said awkwardly into the intercom speaker.
"Hello who is this?" said a familiar, high class accented and female voice from the other side.
"Uh, this is the new nanny. This is the Kirkland residence correct?"
"Oh yes! Penelope wasn't it?"
"Yes, indeed. Is all of this your house?" Penelope couldn't see the house itself, but with the great gate and long driveway with an oak canopy; it must be a very large house.
"It is quite large. No need to fear, I'll send a car to drive you here, it will only be a minute." Then static. Penelope took her finger from the button and stood awkwardly at the gate swinging her suitcase at her side. Just as Lady Kirkland had said it wasn't long before a elegant black car rolled down the driveway and stopped at the gate. An older man stepped out of the car wearing a black coat with tails and a red bow tie. He proceeded to extract a silver key from his breast pocket, unlock the gate from behind the seal, and stand beside the slightly opened gate.
"Please do come in madam. I shall bring you to the manor." He said with an accent that sounded like he was from the east. Penelope noticed this, but said nothing, only proceeded to the car, in which the door was opened by the butler, and together they turned around and drove down the long driveway and to the front of the house. Penelope was correct, it was an immense house. It was made of bricks with white stone pillars and edging, and a balcony that overlooked the driveway. A young boy was leaning over the railing and staring at Penelope.
I'll have to teach him proper manors. she thought to herself waving at the boy who retreated into the manor. The butler opened one of the great oak doors for her and she was greeted immediately by Lady Kirkland standing atop a staircase decorated with a red velvet carpet. She was a gorgeous woman who had only turned 45 the following month but looked none older than 36. She had long model-like flowy golden blond hair and a figure that few are blessed with at her age. Her face showed no sign of age only bright red lips and beautiful purple eyelids that made her eyes look and extraordinary kelly green.
"Hello Penelope." she said happily and gracefully walking down the stairs. She met Penelope at the bottom and shook her hand.
"It is a pleasure meeting you Lady Kirkland." she said bringing her hand back to her luggage.
"Shall I take that to your room madam?" the butler asked Penelope pointing at her bags.
"That sounds like a fantastic idea Sebastian." Lady Kirkland said. "You do that and I will introduce her to the children if that sounds alright with you Penelope."
"That sounds wonderful Lady Kirkland." Penelope said with a large smile and a bounce of her heels.
"Please Penelope, call me Victoria." Victoria led Penelope into the Living room. There was a large TV on the wall on the back wall in front of them,on it was the morning news, and watching the news on the sofa in front of the TV were three boys.
"Boys! Your new nanny is here!" Victoria said.
"Oy, you mean Peter's nanny?" One shouted back not budging from his seat. Victoria took a deep breath.
"No, I mean your, all four of your, nanny! Now stand and present yourselves!" two of the boys threw their head back and groaned standing slowly while the third one jumped up and faced Penelope with a large smile, the boy who stood on the balcony. The first to speak was the tallest who had messy brick red hair and was speckled from head to toe in freckles.
"I'm the oldest, Astrid, I'm 20 and don't need a nanny!" He flopped down on the sofa again. The second was slightly smaller and had messy mahogany hair that covered his eyes, he had to brush them away with his hand.
"I'm Dylan, I'm the second oldest and I'm 18." he joined his brother on the couch. The last to speak was a short and bubbly boy with short, but still messy, straw colored hair and big, sweet, blue eyes.
"I'm the youngest, Peter! You're here for me probably." he joined his brothers on the sofa . "Not probably, definitely." Astrid said.
"It's nice to meet all of you." Penelope said, she got grones in return and a "You too" from Peter. "Did you say 'four' before?" she asked.
"Three!" all four Kirklands said with a heavy sigh.
"Where is he?" Victoria asked annoyed.
"Sleeping probably." Dylan said.
"Maybe he finally did it." Astrid said elbowing Dylan.
"Did what?" Penelope asked.
"Nothing." The two said quickly in unison.
"I'll go get him." Victoria said walking to a door at the end of the room. Penelope stood awkwardly next to the sofa with all three boys looking at her, Dylin and Astrid with annoyance and Peter blankly. She was going to ask them when they went to school but even before she could get a sound out she was interrupted by Lady Kirkland.
"JUST GET DOWN STAIRS!"
"WHY!" Another voice yelled.
"BECAUSE I'm YOUR MOTHER AND I TOLD YOU TO NOW GO!" thumping of bare feet and the click heels came sounding down stairs fallowed.
"He's not a morning person." Dylan said, Astrid and Peter snickered. Lady Kirkland appeared at the door and brushed her bangs back before walking to Penelope's side again.
"Come one now lad!" she urged aggravated. Slowly from behind the door emerged a small figure wearing black and red plaid pajama pants and a black hoodie with white exaggerated stitches on it pulled far over his face counseling it. From what Penelope could make out was he had longer messy lemon blond hair and pale feet. The rest of him was completely covered.
"I'm Arthur the third oldest." He said just loud enough to be heard over the TV.
"Second youngest." Astrid said. Arthur wiped his head at him and, most likely scowled at him.
"Can I go now." he said angrily.
"You really should stay down here," Lady Kirkland said "you've got school in ten-." By this time Arthur was half way up the stairs and didn't care what his mother had to say and never did.
He thumped his bare feet loudly up the stairs to shut her up because he knew she would still be talking. He paused at his door and admired it for a moment. He had just repainted it to resemble the door from one of his favorite TV shows, 221A, and it was a striking resemblance indeed. His door wasn't four paneled like all the other doors in the manner, his was flat, and the door on 221A was four paneled so that meant he had to paint it like their were four panels, a golden adress reading 221A and a gilded knocker that was good enough to use. He ran his hand down the center and let it drop to his side. The paint had dried. He opened his door and was greeted to the sound of the credit song to his favorite movie, "Nightmares for Christmas." He considered taking it out and putting in another crowd favorite "That's Rather Unfortunate" but he did only have about ten minutes till he had to go to school so he just walked from his TV to his futon, which was overflowing with pillows blankets and a few stuffed animals, on the opposite wall and threw himself on it.
But I don't want to wear human cloths! He thought. He perked his head up and saw his only pair of jeans laying sprawled in front of him. They were well used black skinny jeans. He threw his head back down onto a dreadful looking teddy bear and groaned.
"Why does the universe want me to be productive?!" he yelled before rolling onto his back and sitting up. He snatched his trousers and sniffed one of the legs. Quickly he realized what a bad idea that was considering yesterday he had to dig through the dumpster behind his school to retrieve his backpack then trudge through the garden to find the chemistry book that he had thrown out his window in disgust. He held them far away from him and covered his nose with the sleeve of his sweatshirt.
"Good Lord!" he exclaimed. It had been approximately three weeks since he had last cleaned them prior to the other day and they seemed to have fermented under the assortment of goods on his futon overnight. They now had the slight stench of gasoline almost, yesterday's lunch, fertilizer and his colion Villain. He looked at the staircase leading up to his room, it had previously had windows on it but was now completely covered in posters.
Like anyone would be coming to get me anyway. He thought looking back to his trousers. He grabbed them by the waist band with both hands, still held to the full extent of his arms, closed his eyes and whispered under his breath. The trousers shined a bright white that made the rest of the room grow dark, then like a gust of wind they returned to their normal used black and stiff position. Arthur put them to his nose and took a large sniffed.
"Smells like rain." he said before taking off his pajamas and replacing them with his newly cleaned trousers.
This, magical cleansing of the trousers was a regular occurrence for Arthur, in fact it was the only way he cleaned any of his cloths. It was rather hard to get his clothes downstairs to have them washed by the maids, mainly because he threatened all of them that if they did enter his room he would curse them with everlasting menstrual cramps or the pain of passing multiple kidney stones. He didn't mind either, he prefer not to have his belongings handled by anyone other than himself, it also makes it certain none of his clothes will shrink.
Arthur looked to his clock, which read 7:45, and figured his brothers must be ready to go to school and most likely getting into the car and about ready to leave without him. He wiped his eyes with the palms of his hands and his once clean eyelids were now covered in a heavy black eyeliner, grabbed his "The Doctor" themed backpack, put on his No-Star Inverse's and went to join his brothers.
Just as he had suspected he arrived just in time to see his brothers start to roll out of the garage in the same car that Penelope arrived in. Astrid looked at him after he backed up, Arthur walked forward and signaled him to stop, Astrid gave him a different signal and drove off. Arthur walked into the driveway and watched them drive away, Sebastian was at the gate holding it open for them, then he had a thought. He turned and looked at the garage, there were four other cars waiting.
"MUM!" he yelled. "I'M TAKING YOUR CAR!" he walked to the red box car, that conveniently had its keys left in it and drove it to Sebastian who was walking to the house, he rolled down the window and stopped next to him.
"Yes young master Arthur?" he asked.
"I'd rather drive with you than my mum." Arthur said.
"And i'd rather drive with you than walk this driveway again." Sebastian opened the car door and got in. "You remember what I taught you about pulling onto the road correct?" he asked pulling his seatbelt on.
"You want me to go the other way because it may be longer but it's safer?" Arthur asked pulling onto the road and turning the opposite way his brother did.
"Very well. You remember how to get to your school from here?"
"Of course."
The drive to school went by smoothly with appropriate turn signals and no directions asked. Arthur dropped himself off at the entrance to the student parking lot and Sebastian drove the car home. Now the hard part was making his way through the lot with little to no injuries. Arthur took a deep breath put in his ear buds, turned up his music so everyone lounging in the lot was a quiet muffle pulled his hood further over his head and walked. He hadn't walked more than six steps though when he was almost hit by a car, Astrid's car.
"OY! ARTTIE! Watch the road mate! Next time I'm hitting you!" he yelled out the drivers window as Daylin left the car.
"You said that last time." Arthur snarled.
"Ok then." Astrid revved the engine, Arthur stepped closer to the car. He smirked when his brother rolled his eyes, he knew he didn't have the balls to hit him. Arthur turned and continued walking, on the side closer to the parked cars though. He wasn't that much of a dick, Astrid still had to drop Peter off at the Primary school and go to his own classes at university. Arthur sighed and shoved his one of his hands in his sweatshirt pockets, turning his music up a touch, and pulled his hood further over his head. He looked forward examining who he was going to pass through his bangs. He did take some pleasure in doing this, seeing them but never being seen. Well, he was seen, it seemed that every glance resulted in superlative language, rude gestures or remarks or, the worst, mimicry. He feared mimicry ever since he saw a certain episode of "The Doctor," he also didn't trust the family GPS or statues, different episode but same fear.
He passed a clique of six boys who were all dressed well with button up shirts and jeans, they were all circled around one boy though. He stood out from the other five, he was still wearing a button up shirt but his was pinstriped navy blue and he wore a brown leather coat rolled to his elbows with a hood. But the thing that made him stand out more than the others was instead of his hair being short and spiked his was long and reached his shoulders and was tied back in a low ponytail with a blue ribbon. His name is Francis Bonnefoy and he and Arthur haven't got along since year seven. When he noticed Arthur an evil plan hatched in his mind.
He cut through his clique and snuck behind Arthur,though he was very much aware he was behind him, bent his knees so he was about the same size as him, hunched over like Arthur was, pulled his hood over his head and slipped his hands in his pockets. His friends laughed as he mocked Arthur's Pidgin-toed gate. Arthur, hearing the laughter following him stopped, took out and ear bud and turned around in time for Francis to straighten up.
"What do you want." Arthur spat. Francis laughed and shook his head like it was obvious, his clique laughed along and Arthur was beginning to feel rather small.
"Arthur, Arthur, Arthur." He said almost exaggerating his North-South accent. "You know exactly what we want little boy." more laughter. Smaller feeling.
"Well it seems to be different every time you ask so. No. I don't know ezactly what jou want." he mimicked. Francis glared at him and got closer to loom over Arthur. It was known by most that Francis was of average height and Arthur, on the other hand, hadn't grown since year six and stood almost a head in a half shorter than Francis. Arthur stepped back and looked up at him. For a second he looked at his brother Dylan, who was looking at him and turned away when their gaze meet. He returned his focus to Francis.
"Give me your Euros-er-Pounds." He said not losing his intimidating demeanor even with the slang mistake. Arthur had, in fact, six pounds in his bag for his breakfast and lunch and really didn't want to wait till 5:00 to eat again. But he felt very outnumbered and small so he knelt down, took his bag off and searched for his pounds while Francis and his clique laughed and highfived each other over their success. In fact they weren't even looking at Arthur…
He dashed off towards the entrance that passed the office clutching his bag tightly. It was the laughter and yells of "HE'S GETTING AWAY!" from bystanders that alerted the clique of his absence. They ran after Arthur who was fast for someone whose favorite form of exercise was the walk to the mini fridge in his room. The seven of them ran past Dylan, Arthur slapping him on the back of the head as he passed, and past the office, Gaining the attention of the secretary, . She may have been nearing her sixties and losing her hearing, but her eyes were trained in spotting delinquents.
"BOYS!" she yelled as they ran past. Though it was directed at all seven of them Arthur ran off and hid in a large group of students heading for their lockers and was gone. Two of the boys, Paris and Caleb, tried to continue the pursuit but was stopped.
"NO!" Mrs. Davis yelled at them. "Come in, all of you." she beckoned them into the office were the six of them fell into the the chairs in front of her desk. Arthur watched them try to fight for their freedom behind a pillar and laughed under his breath. He greatly enjoyed watching his mortal enemies get in trouble, made his day just that much better. As he watched Francis tell Mrs. Davis his story he smiled evilly. Francis was making wild gestures and threw his hand out towards directly where Arthur was standing and followed with his eyes. Arthur wiped behind the pillar, Pulled his phone out and turned it the camera to use as a mirror. He felt his heart pound his ribcage and his breathing shallowed. Francis' eyes darted the commons for him but couldn't find him and turned back to Mrs. Davis. Arthur saw this in his phone. He let go of the breath he was holding and slid down the pillar, his heart beat slowed down, he turned and looked past the pillar to the office. It was ' turn to yell at them. He leaned back against the pillar.
WHY!? he thought moving his head toward the ceiling and closing his eyes. Why him!? Why couldn't it be someone else the Elton or someone flaming like that!? Why did it have to be Francis?! Allow me to elaborate.
You may see Francis and Arthur as the two least likely people to ever be anywhere near a relationship, and you would be right, but in year six Arthur began to mature and with that gained feelings for our fair Francis. A few other changes occurred at this time to, like seldom coming to school and only for about half the day at the most. Everytime he would come back he seemed more reclusive and shadowed than last time. He no longer hung out with friends and as a result lost all of them, one of them being Francis. Francis didn't understand and because of this he thought Arthur was ignoring him. Francis reacted with anger and the torment began. Francis fell in with his current group of friends and they would do everything in their power to belittle Arthur. Then the day came when Arthur's life took a horrible turn. It was the beginning of his seventh year and Arthur had just discovered a dark secret about himself that could only be revealed by looking at his eyes. They now shined like glittering emeralds and was very apparent in the dark. A rumor had also revealed itself over the summer.
It was believed that the Kirkland family had a curse that ran through it's veins. It was believed that long ago Edmond Kirkland killed a witch and before she died she cast a curse onto his family. She cursed his wife, who was pregnant with their third child, that her spirit will possess the child and will inherit her powers and they shall only be used for the greater evil. The wife had the child, a son, and all seemed normal and the curse was believed to be a hoax, until one night, while the son's parents were sleeping, the child murdered his older parents discovered this in the morning and took the child away to "someone who could help." When the child was asked why he killed his siblings he replied with "I have awoken." in a voice that was not his. The family was gone for a long time and by the time they returned the curse was believed to be gone. But when the boy reached his twelfth birthday the curse had returned. The witch didn't seem to have a presence in boy though but he still had the power and one day his eyes began to glow like a candle. He hid this from his parents like his parents hid his powers. Poorly. the next time the boy went to the village the villagers feared the witch would return and terrorise them once more. So they burned the boy at the stake like they did the witch. The turn in the rumor occurs when it is told this wasn't the last time a Kirkland was burned. Nearly every third born Kirkland that had the same glowing eye trate as the boy did burned. All of the third borns were boys I should add. It was believed that the curse never even existed though, for that is preposterous and out of reasoning.
Or so they say.
It was years before the burnings were forced to stop and from that point on the Kirkland's were viewed as respected but filthy and the only way to purify them was to kill the third born. So for lucky Arthur he was born to be hated. And he is.
Back to our little ball of pure hatred for the entire human race. Arthur walked down the empty hallway to "put away his headphones or go to the office." And only a mad man would actually sacrifice his music for the sake of an education, so he was going to the office. He was rather enjoying the particular song that was playing and, feeling confident that no one was looking at him, was strutting and swaying his head to the beat of the song and for once, he might have even smiled. But even if their was a fleeting smile on his face it was wiped clean at the sight of Francis walking his way. Arthur hung his head low again and got to the far side of the hallway to try and avoid him at all costs. Francis had other ideas though. He steamed towards Arthur who noticed and tried fast walking away but was caught when Francis grabbed his arm.
"I got fucking detention because of you!" He yelled as quietly as he could in a hallway. "I was perfect I was golden with the grades to prove it and now I have a detention because of your dumbass!"
Your failing biology. Arthur thought continuing to look down the hall. Your not perfect or golden.
"Look at me you ass!" Arthur turned toward Francis, under his bangs he looked pitifully at him, but Francis saw a cocky smirk. He threw Arthur's arm out of his hand like it was infected and muttered to himself in his native slang. The two continued their separate ways down the hallway. Arthur arrived fabulously to the office and Mrs. Davis had a little giggle.
"Yes Arthur?" she asked.
"I was given a situation. Surrender the bliss and only light in this dark hell hole that is my music or go to the lions den, more commonly known as the office." Arthur said strutting to Mrs. Davis' desk and placed his hands on the cold surface and leaning casually.
"So of course you chose the hard and painful path of going to the office." Mrs. Davis said.
"Oh yes." Arthur turned around and dramatically swooned. "It was a treacherous path but one that must be taken if I wish to keep the purity of music!" he turned back around and stood like a normal human. "Plus class was a boring review for tomorrow's test."
"Well those are rather important you know." Mrs. Davis said looking over her glasses.
"Whatever helps you sleep at night."
"Well he's busy now, take a seat." Arthur took three steps back and slumped in a chair. left her desk and went into the principal's office.
She was gone for longer than expected. Normally in situations like this she would only poke her head into his office, say who was here and why and, in Arthur's case, a warning was issued. But this time instead of poking her head in she entered the office, fully. It would be a lie to say that Arthur kept his don't-care attitude as he saw her figure leave because he in fact felt very nervous. He had troubles getting to and from school already he didn't need anything to interfere or make things worse. He sat with his elbows resting on his knees and waited for to come and, please lord, tell him he had lunch detention worst case.
As she entered the room Arthur sat up and looked at her like a patient who found a "lump" would look at his doctor.
"So I get off with a warning right?" asked Arthur.
"No, the policy is three warnings and you get a detention." Mrs. Davis said simply. Her tone changed from friend to professional. "You have accumulated three warnings, therefore you now have-"
Lunch detention! Please, please lunch detention! Arthur though with anticipation.
"Detention after school today." Arthur was screaming his lungs out on the inside. Most everyone hated him, but the people who hated him most got regular detentions and were most likely to be there today. He kept his composure as his mind continued it's defining cry of sorrow. In order to further keep his composure he tightly smiled crossed his ankle over his knee and placed his chin in his hand that was resting on his bent knee.
"Ok," he squeaked. "I won't have a ride home."
"We'll be calling you parents anyway to inform them that you have detention." said.
Won't matter no one's going to come anyway! Stupid bitch. Though Arthur. "Ok." He squeaked again then left.
He didn't return to class like he was supposed to, class only had ten minutes left and he needed this time. Instead he went to the boys bathroom on the second floor at the end of the Freshman lockers. No one ever used that bathroom, toilets are always being clogged by nothing the sinks hardly work and the urinals are a disgusting yellow, purposely painted. When he entered he didn't wait for the heavy door to slowly shut, He,using all his body weight, shoved it shut. When the door was closed he was on his hands and knees and breathing heavily. He wanted desperately to cry out of pure rage but didn't allow a single tear to escape. He quickly got to his feet and, running his fingers through his messy hair, paced the length of the bathroom muttering increasingly rude things to himself.
This isn't anger that came from getting detention, this has been built up over the past week or two. This anger is from the neglect of his parents verbal abuse from his brothers and practically everyone and the fact that his crush still hated every inch of him right down to his very black sole. Thinking of that in particular broke something in him,perhaps his small heart a little more, and he yelled at the top of his lungs. The bathroom is relatively soundproof but in neighboring classrooms distracted students were jolted out of their day dreams at his yell. Arthur fell to his knees his hands clinging to his hair as if he let go he was going to fall off the face of the earth. He continued his screaming but this time concealed them behind locked teeth.
This god forsaken school is goING TO BE THE DEATH OF ME! He thought over and over again with more anger each time.
Once he heard the bell ring he let go of his hair and dropped his hands over his face. He didn't have to look calm or try to get his composure back, this was the freshman hallway after all, the only people in school that freed him. He thought of that and smiled in the most devilish fashion. He put his hands on his lap and chuckled before he got up.
His influence was evident as he left the bathroom. The group of lockers closest to the bathroom either stopped what they were doing and stared horrified at him or got all the books they would need for their next two or three classes and got out of the hall. Arthur enjoyed this. It always feels better to be on top than bottom.
The rest of the day passed like the beginning. Arthur going out of his way to not run into Francis and his clique, ignoring class and doodling yet somehow being able to nearly be one of the top students in the school, avoid Francis, hide in the library, avoid Francis, leave.
OH! Shit, wait, no… no he doesn't leave. Yeah no he has to go to detention. So he reluctantly turned around and walked back into the school. He stood in front of the door and realized he had no idea where to go. He over heard that detention is normally held in the library so he chose to look their first. Ask ? No. Just no.