Disclaimer, the usual.
About a month later, dorothy found herself one Saturday sitting on the back step during a rainy stormy morning. No one had noticed her absence yet. As she sat there, getting soaked. The door was unlocked, she tested it several times to make sure she wouldn't get locked out by accident.
"why are you just sitting here?" Dorothy asked herself.
She honestly didn't know. The rain was quite warm, but she didn't know if it was out of boredom or because she just wanted some time to herself. however, Auntie Melinda and zeb eventually found her.
"Dorothy, what are you doing out here? your soaked to the skin, and you're a mess." Auntie Melinda said.
"I need some place to think, this seemed as good a place as any." Dorothy said.
"In the pouring rain?" zeb asked.
"I've done worse." Dorothy said.
"Oh yea?" Zeb asked.
"thunderstorms." Dorothy said as a crack of thunder shook the area.
"you stand corrected, you haven't done worse yet, I'll get a towel." Zeb said walking off.
"Oh, your mother used to love rainstorms, actually, let me dig up a photo album later, I know I have some pictures of one of the times we all got caught in a freak rainstorm." Melinda said.
"I'll take a note of it." Dorothy sighed as Zeb returned with a towel.
"here's the towel, oh and dorothy, you have a phone call from your aunt." Zeb said helping wrap dorothy in the towel.
Dorothy sighed and walked into the house. Taking her shoes off and leaving the next to the door she walked over to the phone and picked it up.
"Hello?" Dorothy said in the phone.
"Oh dorothy, where were you?" Came Alex's voice from the other end of the phone.
"Out on the back porch, getting soaked by rain." Dorothy replied.
She heard alex say something to some other peopled and heard a muffled groan.
"dorothy one of these days you're going to do that and get sick, its presently snowing hear again." alex said.
"Oh, nice, how are things back at home?" Dorothy asked.
"well I have Ellie, Madeline, Ace, Jack, Jon and Morris here at your farmhouse with me, Madeline and Jack are working on a hat for Ozma, a nice grand gold number this time, last time it was stripes with buttons, but we're working on something to bring color back to the town." alex said.
"ooh, come on please a little hint?" Dorothy asked.
"no dear, you're just going to have to wait." Alex said as dorothy heard the phone get whipped from his hand.
"Dorothy, you shouldn't have been sitting out there in the rain, you'll get sick one of these days." Came em's voice.
"Auntie Em, alex already gave me that speech." Dorothy said.
"how long were you out in the rain young lady?" Em asked sternly.
"I don't know, a couple of hours, I wanted to do some thinking." Dorothy said.
She heard her aunt sigh.
"Dorothy Madeline Louise Gale, please, promise me you'll at least try to stay out of trouble, Melinda was worried when they couldn't find you, I could hear it in her voice." Em said.
"I promise." Dorothy sighed.
"Now can you hand the phone back to Melinda?" Em asked.
Dorothy sighed and handed the phone to Melinda, who then shooed her away to get washed up. However, she heard half of the conversation.
"Emily? Yes, I know, she's just like her mother. No, I'm going to look for some pictures later, you remember that day I found my mom's camera? Yea those pictures, I'll have to get copies made for you." Was all dorothy got to hear before she got up the stairs.
After she had taken a warm bath and washed up and gotten into a dry outfit, she sat down on the bed and sighed. Both toto and pockets jumped up on her lap. They both looked at her with big sad eyes.
"you two a bit homesick as well?" dorothy asked.
"yes." They both said.
"I sort of figured, but we have to see this through." Dorothy said trying to smile
They both looked at her with their heads tilted to the side.
"What? Don't look at me like that, I always see things through." Dorothy said
Immediately they both jumped off her lap and walked out of the room.
"Wow, good to know your pets have so much faith in you." Zeb said walking in with a plate with a sandwich on it.
"well, I might have a bad habit of being, unpredictable." Dorothy said.
"I'll say, why were you out in the rain again?" Zeb asked as more thunder shook the house.
"I wanted a better place to think." Dorothy said.
"you wanted to go outside to think you should have just gone outside and spent time with Jim." Zeb said handing her the plate.
Dorothy thought about this for a moment as she took the plate from Zeb. She hadn't really been thinking about comfort, she had just wanted to think. And as she ate the ham sandwich zeb had given her she sighed.
"I guess I wasn't really thinking to rationally." She said.
"I'll say, well, if you need anything, just shout." Zeb said walking out of the room.
Dorothy sighed and finished off her sandwich. She laid back on the bed and closed her eyes. She wished she could be in two places at once. Then it occurred to her that Madeline was with them and that it was a rather redundant wish. At that moment, she got up and walked out of the room, outside the door she found toto and pockets waiting. Both of them jumped to attention as another crack of thunder shook the house. She took them both in her arms and walked down to the living room where she sat down on the couch. It was barely passed noon and she was getting bored. However her thoughts were broken by a loud crash from upstairs that got everyone's attention. Dorothy was the first to make it to Zeb's room. It was rather disorganized; the bed was messy and unmade. Zeb was on the floor rubbing the back of his head.
"Are you alright?" dorothy asked.
"Yea, I just startled myself, that's a first, did you put that mirror on my desk?" Zeb asked.
"this is my first time seeing your room, the doors always shut so I don't bother, and before now I never had a reason to look." Dorothy said.
"I heard a crash, are you okay zeb?" Melinda asked walking in.
"Auntie Melinda, did you put that mirror on my desk?" Zeb said pointing to the desk.
Dorothy looked over at it and saw a silver mounted mirror. For a moment, she figured one of her friends had tried to look in on her and found zeb instead. But immediately shrugged off that theory figuring that they would have just stuck to the crystal ball.
"Oh, yea, you said you wanted one, and by luck Mrs. Martin had an extra one, I guess I forgot to mention it, what were you doing?" Melinda asked.
"I was working on my project again and I started to nod off, so I turned on the lamp, the glare in the mirror blinded me for a moment, and then seeing my reflection, auntie Melinda, and in short, ah! Fall, crash! Ouch." Zeb said.
"Should I get some ice?" Dorothy asked offering him a hand.
"No, I'll be fine." Zeb said
"you sure?" Melinda asked.
"yes, auntie Melinda." Zeb said sounding a bit frustrated.
Melinda sighed and walked out of the room. She knew that it would be useless to try and give him a lecture at this point. Dorothy however stayed there.
"So, you got scared, by your own reflection?" She asked.
"Yea, shut up." Zeb said.
Dorothy couldn't help but giggle at this. But as she looked at the mirror she could have sworn she saw Ozma's face flash in the mirror. She sighed and walked out of the room.