October 15, 2009
It took very little time for the Thenardier children to develop a routine in the Fauchlevent house, as if the lived there for their entire lives and one morning, not too late in October, as Éponine was going through what she did every morning she looked at herself in the mirror. She touched her eye gently, the bruise was gone, it had completely faded away, her face had returned to what she liked to see every day. It had been nearly a week and a half from when she took the hit, which slowly faded from black and blue, to eventual yellow, now it was finally gone. As soon as she finished getting dressed she ran down stairs to find anyone who would bother to listen to her, "it's gone!" she exclaimed happily to Gavroche who was sitting at the kitchen table.
"What's gone?" he asked, then he looked at his sister's face, "oh the shiner! It's gone!" he smiled, it made him happy to see Éponine so excited.
"What are you two going on about?" Azelma grumbled, it was clear that she was still very tired.
"The bruise, it went away!" Éponine was now downright giddy.
"'Ponine, don't you need help with your make up?" Cosette entered the kitchen, she then looked at Éponine to see the wild grin on her face and her black eye gone, she smiled. "I guess you don't."
"I know, isn't that great!" Éponine exclaimed.
"Well come on then, don't you want to show it off at school?" Cosette laughed.
"I wouldn't call it showing off," Éponine grabbed at her backpack, "I'm just happy is all."
"Well now you don't have to worry about working a black eye into your Halloween Costume," Azelma chimed in.
Éponine through her a glare, "that was never I problem, I suppose I could have been Nancy from Oliver, I like her."
"Well you could still do it," Cosette suggested, "all we need to do is find you a red dress, right?"
Éponine thought about it for a moment, "I suppose it could work," she replied, "but why worry about it now? I have a few weeks!"
"Make that closer to two," Azelma responded.
"That's plenty of time," Éponine smiled as she walked out the door.
Not many people took to notice that there was a change about Éponine, but to her that was good, she was no longer in the spotlight as the girl with the black eye. She had returned to her life as being Éponine Thenardier, a sophomore at Hugo High who tended not to cause much concern amongst anybody except for Mr. Javert, the dean of students.
"Hey Marius," she greeted her friend as he approached his locker.
"Hey, you seem awfully chipper this morning, something happen?" He smiled, then he immediately noticed, "your black eye is gone, I know it was fading but 'Ponine," he grinned, "this is great!"
All Éponine could do was smile, "it's good to be back to normal."
Marius laughed, "funny to hear you say that, don't you always promote the idea 'normal is boring'?"
"Okay but that doesn't apply to every situation," Éponine shrugged her shoulders, "you are taking my words out of context."
"Whatever you say 'Ponine," Marius smiled, "come on we should probably get to class."
Today had been the best day that Éponine had in a long time, of course things had improved since moving in with Cosette, but today had overall been the best. The happy feeling remained with her all day and continued on the way back to Cosette's house. Except when they got back there was a strange car parked in front and Mr. Fauchlevent's was in the driveway. "Isn't you father home early?" Éponine mused.
"He is," Cosette noticed, "I wonder whose car that is..."
The four of them plus Toussaint entered the house quietly, and shut the door quietly behind them, Éponine immediately could pinpoint voices coming from Mr. Fauchlevent's office. She had the strongest urge to stand by the door and eavesdrop on the conversation and it took an immense ammount of will power (and Cosette pulling her away from the door) to leave it be.
"I'm sure we'll find out what's going on soon enough," Cosette smiled, "besides what if it has nothing to do with us."
Éponine sighed, "well I suppose that would be sufficiently awkward," so she went to go and do her homework simply because she had nothing that would let her procrastinate.
The house was quiet except for the voices coming from behind the door for the next half an hour, the only thing was when Gavroche threw his book to the ground and sighed loudly. "I'm bored..." he complained.
At that moment the door to the office opened and the woman from three days before, Estelle Martin, stepped out along with Mr. Fauchlevent. "We are still conducting the investiagation against the parents, it so far what we have uncovered is they have been possibly linked with other crimes and felonies." she spoke.
"But they can stay with us?" Mr. Fauchlevent asked, "I will become their guardian?"
Estelle sighed, "it took a lot of work but I was able to convince my supervisors, the only catch is that over the next few months we will be sending some around to check and see how they are doing."
The Éponine looked at Cosette with a bright smile, she could not hide her elation at the fact that she no longer would ever have to return to the place she had once called home.
"We may need to put them in therapy or a support group," Estelle lowered her voice so that only Mr. Fauchlevent could here, "it might do them a world of good."
"Thank you Ms. Martin for the good news, I'm glad we got this sorted out." Mr. Fauchlevent replied.
Estelle nodded and left the house, Mr. Fauchlevent approached the Thenardiers, "judging by your expressions you heard the conversation?" he asked Éponine.
"Yes," she was still grinning, "thank you sir."
Mr. Fauchlevent smiled at her kindly and then returned to his office to continue with work that he had yet to finish.
Cosette threw her arms around Éponine and gestured for Azelma to join them, "now we are truly like sisters!"
"Hey what about me?" Gavroche asked feeling a little left out.
"And you too Gav," Cosette ruffled the boy's hair.
