Riley walks into the kitchen to the sound of yelling, specifically yelling between Gina, Carmen and Tee. It's been a couple of days since she arrived at the DG, and within those couple of days she's settled in quite well. She's become good friends with a couple of the residents, particularly Carmen, Tee and Faith, and even those who she's not that friendly with she's at least had a conversation with. Her and Rick have talked about music a couple of times but she wouldn't exactly consider him a friend just yet, only because he is quite reserved and it's kind of hard to tell whether or not he's accepted you. Still, everybody seems relatively friendly, well, excluding Elektra. Whilst the girl hasn't been particularly mean to Riley just yet, she seems a bit more...abrasive than the other residents.
The yelling stops, and moments later Tee and Carmen walk out of the laundry room followed by Gina, the former two both clearly disgruntled. Riley walks over to them and looks at them curiously, "What happened?"
Carmen sighs, "Gina won't let us go this party that everybody else is going to!"
"That sucks." Riley remarks.
"It's far worse than that! It's so unfair!" Carmen groans in frustration, "Don't you hate it when adults stop you from doing what you want to do?"
Riley nods mutely, not really sure how else to respond. How can she hate something that she hasn't experienced for years? She was only ever told what to do around those who were important to impress, and in those circumstances she was more forced than told. Not that anyone here needs to know about any of that.
"I told you my metal detector wasn't a waste of money!"
Riley turns towards the kitchen table as Johnny places a large metallic box on the end of it, a victorious look on his face. Riley crosses the room and joins Johnny, Tyler, Jody, Rick and Frank at the table, looking at the box with curiosity, "What's inside of it, then?"
"We don't know." Frank sets the metal detector down on the table beside the box, "We couldn't open it."
"Well, I'm off!"
Riley and the others turn towards Mike, who is dancing on the other side of the kitchen with his flight tickets, clad in a pair of khaki shorts, Hawaiian shirt and sun hat. He's going off to the Caribbean for a holiday, which is apparently something he does once in a blue moon, according to Tee. Mike never takes holidays off. He's that dedicated to his job.
Riley went to the Caribbean years ago, back when things were simpler and everything wasn't so corrupt. She sometimes wishes that she can go back to that time, but then that means she'd have to live through all of the corruption all over again, which is something she'd never want to do.
"Now, no loud music, no kitchen experiments, and don't wind up the relief care worker, please!"
"As if we would do something like that."
Riley can't help but smirk at Carmen's comment. She may have only been here for a couple of days, but she has a feeling that some people in the house are very likely to wind up the relief care worker, no matter who they are. That's just what kids do, well, most kids anyways.
"Has anyone got a hammer?"
Riley turns back towards the table as Gina and Mike walk out of the kitchen. Rick crosses the room and returns with a hammer, which he passes over to Johnny to try and pry open the box with. Everyone debates over what could be inside of the box as Elektra and Gina walk into the kitchen, the latter of the two soon heading into the garden after a short argument with Elektra. Riley doesn't know exactly what they were arguing about, but it's not like she's going to ask Elektra so she can find out.
Elektra walks over to the ground and snatches the hammer from Johnny's hand and hits the side of the box with it once, causing the lid of the box to loosen enough for it to be opened, "There you go!"
Johnny opens up the box, and at the sight of what's inside everyone jumps back in shock. Grenades are inside the box!
"Grenades?!" Elektra sounds more angry than shocked, "I could've blown myself up!"
As Elektra and Johnny argue with each other (which is something that Riley has seen occur multiple times since she's arrived here), Gus reaches into the box and pulls out one of the grenades himself, holding it up in the air above his head as everyone yells at him to put it back in the box.
"I'm only looking. I've never seen one before." Gus protests calmly, slowly turning the grenade around in his hand to fully study it, "It's from World War One. The word "grenade" comes from the French for pomegranate, because that's what the first ones looked like."
"If it's from World War One, these grenades are likely Mills Bombs. They were the hand grenades most widely used by British and Imperial forces back then. The guy who invented them got a Knighthood and everything." Everyone looks shocked at Riley's sudden outburst of knowledge, to which she shrugs and smiles awkwardly, "What? I read."
"What does this bit do?"
Riley turns and looks down at Harry, who is a grenade in one hand, and it's pin in the other. Everyone begins to shout at Harry in fear as Faith walks in through the back door, confusion written all over her face at the sight of their panicked shouts. She notices the grenade a few seconds later, and she wastes no time in lunging forwards and snatching it out of Harry's hand.
"Get down!"
Riley dives under the kitchen counter as Faith tosses the grenade right out of the back door, quickly taking cover alongside the others once it's out of her hands. A few seconds pass before a blinding light shines through the windows and a loud explosion goes off, causing everyone in the kitchen to scream as rubble is blown right through the door and inside of the house.
"Get back, girl!" A strict looking man dressed in army overalls towers over Riley from where she is kneeling beside the crater in the ground, which is thankfully the extent of the damage from the grenade, "Do you want to get yourself blown up?"
"But the grenade's already gone off." Riley replies, looking up at the man in confusion, "Besides, it was a fragmentation grenade, so it's pieces will be all over the garden. It can't possibly go off again if it's in pieces."
The man reaches down and grabs Riley's shoulder, gripping onto her jacket and pulling her up from the ground. His voice is stern but steady, "Let me tell you something, kid, and listen well, because it's incredibly important: nobody likes a Smart Alec."
Riley wants to say that she's not trying to be Smart Alec, and that she in fact is only trying to be logical and actually hates people who are Smart Alec's, but she holds her tongue and says nothing. The man pulls her away from crater and moves her over to where the others are stood as Elektra and Faith walk back outside, the latter of the two speaking up against the man.
"You don't have to drag her along like that!"
"I do if she is standing near a crater made by a grenade!" The man responds sternly, "Grenades are not toys! And if you younger ones thought they were, you older ones should have had the sense to tell them otherwise!"
"Don't have a go at us just cos they're brain dead!" Elektra scoffs.
"How's Gina?"
Faith explains to them all that Gina is concussed due to being knocked off her feet by the grenade and most of them, Riley included, let out sighs of relief at the news. Yes, concussion is bad, but it could be far worse.
"She got off lightly then, didn't she. It's a miracle nobody died." The man responds, absolutely no sympathy in his voice. It almost makes Riley feel sick, "Fancy letting your kids play with grenades!"
"They weren't playing with..."
"Yes, they were! That crater over there and your colleague off to hospital proves it!"
"But she's..."
Faith is cut off when another man calls over from the other side of the garden, saying that they are ready to clear up the remains of the grenade. The man in charge ushers all of the kids back and reprimands Faith, telling her that she needs to keep a closer eye on them all.
"Come on, guys. Head on inside." Faith says calmly, "We should leave them to it."
Riley, like the others, sees no point in arguing with what Faith is saying, and wordlessly walks inside of the house alongside everyone else whilst the men stay outside and clear out the grenade. Once they're inside, Riley turns to Tee and Carmen, "Has anything like this ever happened before?"
"Not exactly, but stuff as crazy sure has."
"I really don't like that guy."
"Who?"
Riley looks up from her phone and over to Rick, who is sat next to Tyler on the opposite sofa, "That army guy! He called me a Smart Alec."
"What's that?" Harry asks.
"A know it all." Gus replies, not looking up from the notebook he is holding in his hands, "He called her a Smart Alec because he thought that she was acting like a know it all."
"Thanks, Gus." Riley says sarcastically, "I wasn't trying to be a Smart Alec. I can't stand people who are. I was just standing up for myself against somebody who wasn't treating me with the same respect that they wanted to be treated with. Besides, I was the never the overly smart one."
"Who was then?"
"Hmm?" Riley mumbles as she glances back at Johnny, who is stood at the pool table with Frank.
"You said that you were never the overly smart one." Johnny states blankly, "Who was then?"
"Nobody." Riley says dismissively. They don't need to know about that. They don't need to know about anything from her past. She doesn't want them to know. Not after what happened when the last lot of people found out.
"Hey, everyone, listen up!" Everybody looks to the door of the room when Elektra speaks up, her and Faith both stood there waiting to speak to everyone, "We had an idea. Instead of bothering with a boring temporary care worker, Faith is going to be our care worker.
"But she's not old enough!" Gus protests.
"That army guy thought that she was."
Riley mumbles under her breath, "Yeah, but that guy was a jerk."
Nobody seems to hear her, as they are too busy listening to Faith and Elektra explain their plan. Riley doesn't listen to much of it, but whatever they said seems to win over most of the others, as the majority of the kids agree with their plan after their short explanation, well, excluding Gus, that is.
"There's supposed to be an adult in charge! I'm ringing Mike!"
Gus makes his way for the door when Elektra tackles him onto the sofa, blocking him from getting up and walking out. Tee surges forwards and yells at Elektra to let Gus go, but she refuses as she doesn't want him to ruin their whole entire plan. Although, Riley is fairly certain that their plan is over when she hears the doorbell buzz.
Faith yells at Elektra to stop before storming out of the room, presumably to go and answer the door. Once she walks out, the room breaks into all out pandemonium, with everybody yelling at each other for various reasons. All of the shouting comes to an abrupt stop when a whistle sounds through the room, the source of the noise coming from a strict looking woman stood at the door. A few laughs sound through the room at the sight of the woman, but they quickly stop when a football flies across the room and smacks the woman right in the face.
The woman storms towards Harry, who was the one who kicked the ball in the first place, and stalks him towards the door, "Go to your room!"
"Leave him alone!"
Riley doesn't know what possessed her to do it, but she finds herself stepping out from by the sofas and into the centre of the room, staring down the strict woman as she turns back towards her, Harry moving to hide behind the door.
"What makes you think that you can talk to me like that?! Do you have no respect?!"
"You have no idea how much respect I have!" Riley says through gritted teeth, "But I prefer to save it for people who deserve it, not for those who have none for themselves!"
The woman takes a couple of steps closer to her, "No television for you, for a week!"
"Is that all you've got, uh..." Riley reaches forwards and grabs her badge, which is hanging on the side of her belt, and reads out her name, "Lydia. Can I call you Lyds? I'm going to call you Lyds."
A couple of the others laugh at that. Lydia sure doesn't, though, "Why, you arrogant, little-."
"Brat?" Riley interjects, "I've heard it all before. Trust me, you're not the first adult I've met who thinks that I need to learn to use my manners. But, why should I? I mean, if the person that I'm supposed to be polite to storms in and yells at a small child for making a mistake, they can't have that many manners for themself right?"
Riley thinks that she's within her rights in the way that she's talking to Lydia. Yes, respect and manners were practically hard-wired into her, but this isn't the first time that she's fought back against somebody who didn't deserve such respect. You'd think that after the consequences of the last time that she did such a thing she wouldn't want to do it again. But watching Harry be screamed at reminded her of her past, and how back then she had someone to stand up for her, well, at least until they left.
"Stop right now, young lady!"
"I'd like to finish my monologue first, if that's okay with you, Lyds?" Riley begins to walk around the room as she talks, much to the frustration of Lydia, and much to the amusement of all of the other kids. Even Elektra's finding it funny, "All I'm saying is, the next time you want to go around calling others arrogant, I would check yourself. Because whilst it may not exactly be arrogant, I can think of quite a few words to describe somebody who screams in the faces of young children and drags them across a room by force."
Lydia falters slightly at this, but is quick to regain her strict composure as Riley makes her way back to the centre of the room, "I will not tolerate bad behaviour like this any longer!"
"Good thing you won't be here to witness anymore of it, then." Riley, along with everyone else in the room, turns to Faith in shock as she suddently speaks up, "I'm the relief care worker. You've been double booked."
Lydia looks Faith up and down and shakes her head in dismissal, "You don't look old enough."
"Yes, I get that a lot. Now, are you going to stand there and discuss my youthful appearance, or let me do my job?" Faith says charismatically, holding out Lydia's coat and bag to her and forcing a smile, "I'll show you out."
Lydia snatches her bag and coat from Faith and makes her way out of the room, Faith following after her. Most of the others trail after her, whilst Riley remains stood in the middle of the room as the remaining kids in the room start to talk again. Riley decides that she'll go and talk to Carmen and Tee, who are helping Gus up off of the couch, when Harry comes running over to her, wrapping his small arms around her waist and hugging her tightly.
"Thank you."
Riley smiles, "No problem."