Chapter 12:
Change
"Father, I am appalled at your actions!" Nora scolded her father as the two sat in the living room. "I never gave you permission to try and teach these children in such a manner!"
"Of course you didn't," Declan huffed, rooting through his newspaper. "I am your father, and I will do what I believe is necessary! I, whole-heatedly, am trying to help you,"
Nora sighed, standing up and pushing the newspaper away so he could look at her face. "Father, I am truly grateful for your help, and I want to take a look at the schedule you made for me. However, don't you think you're being a bit harsh?"
Declan scoffed at the idea. "Harsh!? Nora, you are living with a band of murders, here! Don't think I am oblivious to the pasts of these children, they need someone like me,"
"They've been through quite a bit," Nora tried to say, but Declan cut right in.
"I don't care what they've been through!" Declan snapped. "I was in a war, my employer tried to murder me, and your mother took almost all our money and left! I don't use those as excuses, and neither should they!"
Before Bloodgood could answer, Caleb came dashing in excitedly, calling, "Miss Bloodgood! Miss Bloodgood!"
"Yes?" Bloodgood bent down to look at him. "What is it, Caleb?"
"It's Tom," Caleb bounced up and down in anticipation. "He's climbing that tree- with no powers!"
Declan looked skeptical. "I doubt that is true,"
"It is!" Caleb began to tug on Declan's coat. "Come see!"
Sure enough, once Declan and Nora had stepped outside, they were met with the sight of Tom inching his way up the tree, mangled limbs and all. Bloodgood took once look at this, and she bolted towards the scene. "Tom! Tom, get down from there! You'll hurt yourself!"
"He won't, Nora," grinned Declan, crossing his arms and watching Tom with amusement. "He's a rogue soul, for goodness sake!"
Once Bloodgood managed to coax Tom into getting down, he inched towards the ground with something clutched in his hand. He reached the ground, and unfurled his hand to reveal the stone Declan had thrown up there.
"Why, Tom!" Bloodgood exclaimed, quite surprised. "You got up there without powers? By yourself?"
Tom simply nodded, and he offered the stone to Declan. Declan, however, declined. "No, no, my boy. You earned it," as Tom put the stone in his pocket, Declan remarked, "I did not expect you to make that climb, since you're, well, crippled,"
"He can do a lot," explained Tim, coming up behind Tom and patting his shoulder. "He can do more than anyone may think!"
At dinner that night, as everyone was enjoying the tea sandwiches Bloodgood had prepared, Declan made a startling announcement.
"Nora, my darling," he cleared his throat, setting his glass down. "I think I should tell you that I plan on moving in with someone soon,"
Bloodgood was rather suprised. "Oh? With who?"
Declan went quiet for a few seconds as he refilled his wine glass, his hands quivering noticeably. "Well, it's somebody you are unfamiliar with. A younger person, but not underage," when no one said anything, he cut to the chase. "I'm moving in with another man, Nora,"
Nora stopped cutting a sandwich, and she turned to him with a look of alarm of her face. "You're gay!?"
The children seemed confused by this conversation, and they whispered amongst themselves to try and make sense of it. Declan, noticing this, quickly shook his head. "P-perhaps now is it not the best time for this discussion,"
"Oh, Father," Bloodgood took his hand and squeezed it lovingly. "There's no need to be ashamed, and I apologize for...what I just said. We'll discuss this later,"
Everybody kept eating and tried to forget what they'd just heard. Benny, however, couldn't get this out of his mind, and he told his brothers just what he'd been thinking as they got ready for bed that night.
"He has damned himself!" Benny ranted on and on while his brothers tried to ignore him. "He's committing an evil sin and shall be condemned!"
"Would you shut up!?" Caleb snapped from the couch, where he and Lillian watched TV. "We're trying to watch 'Spiderman'!"
Tim finally had to put a stop to the rant. "Benny, come on. He never said they were getting married,"
Benny tried to argue. "It's still nasty!"
"Oh, yeah?" Tim crossed his arms, leaning in closer. "Well, Benny. We used to kill people. Are we really better?"
There was a pause, and Benny suddenly burst into tears. Seeing this, Tim muttered, "Yeah, cry about that, crybaby,"
Morning came, and Thanksgiving seemed to pass by quickly. At least, it seemed that way to Spectra. She was delighted to see her family, as they talked and laughed over dinner, and she took pictures with her siblings as well as her mother and stepfather. Though, as the sun began to set, Spectra sat out on the porch swing and watched the sherbet-colored sky fade into night, and her mother came to join her.
"Did you have a nice time, my dear?" Caliphe Vondergeist asked softly, sitting beside her daughter.
Spectra nodded, smiling at her mother. "Yeah. I always do, Mom," she looked back out at the sky, and she asked, "Mom, do you ever wonder if...you know, if Dad is out there somewhere, as a rogue soul?"
"I should hope not!" Caliphe exclaimed. "If I ever saw that man again, I'd have to kill him all over again!"
Spectra couldn't help but chuckle a bit. "Okay, but...I've been dreaming about...him,"
There was a paused, and Caliphe wrapped an arm around her daughter. "Even if he is around and searching for us, he can't hurt us anymore. We are untouchable, my dear girl,"
The next day, Spectra got up early and said goodbye to her family, and she headed for the ferry dock to pick up Jared. Once he had been picked up, they continued on to Bloodgood's house.
As Declan was preparing to leave, Bloodgood showed Spectra and Jared the schedule he'd created as well as the punishment system he'd thought up. When Declan was headed out the door, Bloodgood stopped to hug him.
"I hope to talk again soon, Father," she kissed his cheek. "I'm glad you have someone to be with right now,"
Declan just smiled and hugged her back. "Thank you, dear Nora,"
After he'd left, Bloodgood hung up the schedule and the changes began. The schedule had a wake-up time, a time to have breakfast, to get dressed, and just about everything else a simple morning could include. Spectra made another copy for the children to keep in their room, though the children weren't exactly partial to the schedule at first. However, they began to like the way there was a time for everything, and the new system helped organize the day a bit.
And then, there was the new punishment system. Declan had drawn a sort of chart for this, and it had different levels. The first 'level' was a warning, the second was another warning (this one needed to be more strict than the first), and then the third was to place the child in a quiet area for a certain number of minutes (the time had to be one minute per age). Once the time was up, the child would be expected to apologize for the behavior.
This method had mixed results on the children. It was first tested on Caleb, who was surprisingly agreeable at first (he was being punished for burrowing into a sack of flour), but that changed once his nine minutes were up.
"All right, Caleb," Bloodgood announced as she entered the so-called 'reflection room' where he was being kept. "It's time to...where are you?" He wasn't in the chair where she'd left him.
"I got bored!" Called a voice from above, and Bloodgood looked up to see that he'd climbed up the wall and was now hanging from the ceiling fan.
Bloodgood just rolled her eyes and gestured for him to come down. "Well, come down and apologize to me, Caleb!"
He jumped down, and then tapped his chin in thought. "I forgot. What do I need to say sorry for?"
Later, when Lillian was placed in the room for throwing her socks at Jared, she could not be contained for just five minutes. She kept opening the door and running out, and when Jared finally locked the door, Lillian picked the lock with a bobby pin she found. This game of cat and mouse continued for at least an hour until Lillian finally gave up, curled up in a ball on the floor and fell asleep.
That night, at dinner, Tom suddenly flew into a rage for no apparent reason. He threw a glass of milk on the wall and shrieked, and Spectra didn't even wait for a warning. She grabbed him and dragged him to the room, locking him inside and setting the timer for twelve minutes. Tom did not respond well to this, and he pounded on the door while screaming all the while. After about five minutes, this stopped, and the timer went off seven minutes later.
When Spectra came in to talk to Tom, he was sitting there crying, just crying profusely. He looked up when she came in, and he dabbed at his exposed eye while making a strange growling sound. It almost sounded as if he were trying to talk, but couldn't.
"Why are you crying, Tom?" Spectra inquired, brushing the hair from his masked face gently. He only sniffed and stumbled to his feet, heading away to the others.
The next morning, it occurred to Spectra that the children had been with them for a month. Aaleyah was going to return that very day, and this visit would determine how fit the children were for society.
As the black car pulled into the driveway, Bloodgood couldn't help but wring her hands nervously. The children were in the dining room eating breakfast, and they'd been told to be on their best behavior, though whether or not they'd listen was a different manner.
The car door opened, and Aaleyah stepped out, briefcase in hand. As she came walking up the steps, Bloodgood opened the door for her.
"Good morning, Miss Bloodgood," Aaleyah greeted, shaking her hand. "I'm here for the monthly evaluation,"
Bloodgood nodded, showing her to the dining room. "Of course, the children are right in here,"
For the next half hour, Aaleyah observed the children's behavior from the couch in the living room. The children didn't do much, they just watched TV and walked around quietly, perhaps a little self-concious with Aaleyah staring at them. The only eventful thing that happened was when Benny got upset over seeing an ad for women's underwear on TV, but his siblings just ignored him as usual. Once the half hour was up, Aaleyah scribbled down some notes and went to talk to Bloodgood in the office.
"The children seem to have made impressive progress," Aaleyah began, flipping through her notes. "However, I would suggest cutting down the amount of TV they watch. Yes, it keeps them quiet, but it may hinder their development," she laid her notepad on her lap, looking up at Bloodgood. "Now, we need to discuss something very important: their integration into society,"
Bloodgood nodded understandingly, folding her hands. "Yes. Do you think they're ready to be in public?"
Aaleyah was quiet for a few seconds, and she gave a slight nod. "I would say so. However, it is crucial that they're monitored at all times. You wouldn't want them running off into a crowded mall and causing trouble,"
"Oh, of course," as Aaleyah stood up, Bloodgood shook her hand once more. "Thank you so much, Aaleyah. Raising these children has been quite the privilege,"
As Aaleyah left, Bloodgood pulled Spectra aside to talk to her. "Tomorrow I need to go back to Monster High," Bloodgood explained in a hush tone. "I need you and Jared to take the children shopping for new clothes,"
Spectra's mouth fell open a bit. "Really!? So soon?"
"I think they'll do fine," Bloodgood sighed, glancing over at the children in the dining room. "And if you have any trouble, you can always call me,"
Spectra thought this over quietly. "Well...all right, hopefully it can't go wrong,
Hello, my dearest readers! Sorry if this chapter was a bit un eventful. It was getting long and I thought it was a good place to stop for now.
I'm glad to say that I auditioned for the musical rendition of 'The Addams Family' and I got the role of the grandmother! That should be fun. Rehearsals start after New Year's, so I won't be posting quite as much.
Anyway, if you have any questions, comments, or theories, I am eager to hear them. Feel free to write a review!
