The next morning, Amelia woke up to the smell of her mother's cooking. She hopped out of bed, after lying for a few minutes and mentally preparing herself, and went to the washroom to brush her shoulder length hair. When she felt like she was awake, she walked out passed the front desk and turned into the large kitchen area where the aroma's were coming from. Her bare feet were hot against the cold floor as she padding towards her mother, who looked quite exhausted herself. "G'mornin' Mum." she said, taking a plater from the counter filled with fruits out to the main table.
"Oh, thank you, Meelie." she replied with a little sigh. "What would I do without you?" Amelia just gave her a little smile, thinking of telling her mom not to use that silly childish nickname she'd gotten when she was younger, but she didn't. Across the room, she saw the formerly fatigue family sitting at a small table and eating some breakfast. She saw the boy sitting between his parents, he no longer had the stuffed bunny hugged to his chest. His big eyes wandered around the room until they met Amelia's, they widened even more when they did and he turned his gaze to stare at his food.
She frowned, the little boy was shy, but she didn't want him to be. She walked over to the table, looking up at the adult and said, "G'mornin', I'm Amelia." The adults looked down at her with small, friendly smiles.
"Hello, Amelia." the blonde woman said, she was English and noted Amelia's accent. "I'm Melissa, this is my husband Brian, and our son, Rory. Say hi, Rory." she, Melissa, turned to her son, nudging him a little to greet her.
"Hi." Rory said in a small voice, his dull blue eyes met her's briefly before he turned his head away completely from her.
"He's a little shy." Melissa told her, but Amelia just smiled. "Maybe it'll be good for him to have a friend to play with." she nodded happily to the adults.
"If you need me, I'll be-" Amelia looked around the room, then pointed back to where her mother was. "There." She said her goodbyes and departed, leaving the family to their business. She helped her mother through the rest of breakfast, sometimes feeling the boy looking at her, but when she turned around he was staring at his food. Amelia eventually shrugged the feeling off, and when they were finished with breakfast, she went to the front desk where her father was working. Her father was a large bellied man with almost thinning hair, but he wouldn't admit that. She stood up on the stool helping him with papers and oftentimes waving to customers.
The boy, Rory, was taken out the front door by his parents and sat down on the porch, Amelia watched this from the front desk. When his parents walked back into the lobby to talk to her father, she jumped down from the stool and hurried outside. "Hello." she sat down on the porch with the short boy, he looked almost scared sitting next to her. He didn't say anything at first. "You're really shy aren't you?" Amelia asked, she didn't think she'd even get a reply to that.
"My mom says I just don't like to talk much." he said quietly, his eyes staying averted to the ground.
"Well, do you want to play a game with me?" she asked, the boy turned his head a little, still staring downwards, but now at the spot in between the two of them.
"What kind of game?" he sounded a little more enthusiastic about that, which made Amelia smile brightly. She stood up, hopping down the stairs then turning back to him. She stuck out her hand for him to take, though he was still a bit hesitant.
"We'll play Dragons." she told him. "One person's the dragon and the other is the person running away from them so they don't get hit by their fire breath." Rory looked up at her finally, not yet moving from his spot. Amelia sighed. "I'll let you be the dragon first." she promised. The little boy couldn't hide the small smile that tugged across his face.
Inside, Melissa and Brian had paid for their room with Amelia's father. It took a while, mostly because Brian had to run upstairs to get his I.D., but eventually they'd finished and started out to the porch to find their son. When Melissa realized that Rory was no longer sitting on the steps, she hurried out the door, it was unlike him to get up and go somewhere on his own.
Both parents were shocked to see what was happening on the front lawn of the B&B, but they also both smiled. Their son, their short, shy, and quiet little boy was running around chasing after the Amelia girl with his arms outstretched like wings, roaring loudly. Melissa pushed her husband inside so they wouldn't disturb him.
Amelia giggled, running around the side of the giant house and hiding behind a white playhouse her dad made for her when she was younger. The boy roared loudly as he rounded the corner, she squealed lightly and continued to run away. "I should call you ROAR-y instead of Rory!" she called with a huge smile, looking back at him and still hurrying away. While she wasn't looking, Amelia's foot hit a brick that was lying near the house and she fell. Her hands flew out in front of her and she caught herself before her face hit the ground.
She rolled over quickly because her palms were stinging, and when she held them up to look, she found that her one hand had a scrap on it. It was starting to bleed and she had to bite her lip a little to hold back tears. Rory had stopped into front of her, looking a little worried. He kneeled down beside her quickly, taking her hand gently in his to look at it. Rory stood up, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out band-aid. Amelia watched as he opened up the package and put it over to cut for her. When he finished, she said, "You keep band-aids in your back pocket."
The boy nodded, sitting down beside her on the ground. "I'm going to be a doctor when I grow up." he told her, giving a little smile. She looked down at the bandaged hand then reached over and gave him a hug. He went a little stiff and his eyes widened, sort of startled looking. He didn't hug her back, she thought he went into shock or something.
"Thanks." she said, pulling away and sitting back where she was before. He still wasn't replying, Amelia thought maybe he was scared of hugs or something. "Do you want to go into the forest with me? My mom says I'm not allowed to go alone." she stood up and pointed towards the back of the yard. She helped the boy up and started towards the forest without waiting for an answer. He started after her, catching up to her quickly.
The forest wasn't very dense, not near the B&B at least. Amelia picked up a stick that was a bit smaller than her and walked around with it, poking at different things. She looked back at her new friend, who seemed a little tense. "You don't explore much, do you?" she asked him. He looked up, suddenly realizing that she was talking to him. He shook his head. "Why not?" she continued deeper into the forest.
Rory was hesitant behind her, but realized the only way he would get back and not get lost was if he stayed with the girl. "My parents don't like me going out on my own." he told her quietly, looking around at the unfamiliar forest around him. "We're moving to the city." he told her, mostly because he didn't like the eerie silence of the area.
"I wanna visit the city some day." Amelia replied. "Actually, I wanna see the whole world!" Rory thought that was completely insane, he couldn't seem to wrap his head around the idea that someone would actually want to go out somewhere that they didn't recognize.
"You're crazy." he told her.
"Why?"
"You could get hurt out there."
"You could get hurt anywhere." she countered, turning around and leaning against the stump of a tree. "Even in your own house." Amelia didn't know saying that would probably scar the poor kid for the rest of his life. "So, why not get hurt somewhere more interesting?"
Rory shrugged, he hadn't considered that.
"Amelia!" the voice echoed throughout the forest, bouncing off the trees.
"Uh oh." she said, taking her new friend by the wrist and pulling him through the forest to her back yard again. Little Rory practically sighed with relief as the B&B came into view. "We're here, Mum!" she called back as they breached the forest. She saw her mother round the corner of the house and scowl at her.
"You were in the forest again, weren't you? What did I say about that, Amelia Pond!"
"But, Mum! I didn't go alone! Rory was with me." her mom sighed angrily, walking over and grabbing her daughters arm to pull her back inside.
"I meant an adult, not another kid." she grumbled between clenched teeth. Amelia let go of Rory's arm as she was pulled away. "Remember what happened last time you went into the forest? You got lost and stayed out there for half the day."
"Mo-oom." she cried, trying to pull her arm away, but it was no use. She was dragged inside the B&B and sat on the stool beside her father so she wouldn't go back outside, that was her punishment. Amelia sat with her knees bent and feet resting on the counter, hugging her legs and pouting. She wanted to go back outside and play. From the front desk, she saw Rory walk back into the B&B and into the living room where his parents were. She didn't think he saw her, but she watched as he walked in, then upstairs with his parents.
The next day, while Amelia was helping her mother with breakfast, she saw her new friend Rory and his parents. First, she smiled at them, but then she realized they had bags packed and they were waiting at the front desk to leave. Little Amelia hurried over with a distressed look on her face. "You're leaving?" she asked the short boy, who was holding the stuffed bunny against his chest again. He nodded a little, looking quite tired. "But you just got here!"
"Sorry, Amelia." his mother said looking down at her. "Rory wouldn't stop talking about you last night, but we have to catch up with our moving truck in the city." she put a hand on Amelia's shoulder.
The two kids went to sit out on the porch again as they waited for Rory's parents to finish what they needed to do. He left the stuffed bunny beside his bag with his parents. "Maybe you guys will come back again." she suggested, to which the boy just shrugged. He probably new as well as Amelia that he wouldn't be able to come back. They'd only know each other for a short period of time, but the Leadworth B&B didn't usually get many children, only kids that were staying for college in the town over. And those kids didn't like to play. From inside, Rory's parents called him to get his bags.
Amelia stood, watching him run inside and pick a bag that looked a bit too big for him. He followed his parents back out to the porch, stopping momentarily to turned to her. "Well, bye." he said quietly and hopped down the steps.
"Bye." Amelia said back, they packed their car full of their things then started off. When she went back inside, she found the old stuffed bunny lying on the ground. She picked it up and ran outside to the driveway, calling after them, "Wait! Come back!" But they were already gone. She sighed, taking the bunny back inside, maybe they'd come back for it and Amelia would have a friend to play with again for a day. The family didn't come back.
