Chapter 33: Strange Little Girl
In the meantime, Queenie had been summoned to the office of the Pisces House Deputy regarding the babysitting job. The middle-aged woman was standing, along with a husband, wife, and their child.
She was a girl who was in her preteens. She was standing behind her parents with a disinterested facial expression.
The Pisces House Deputy introduced Queenie to the girl's parents. The girl's parents introduced themselves and Queenie bowed as she said, "It's nice to meet you, my name is Queenie Nguyen."
The parents asked Queenie to keep their daughter out of trouble and make her do her daily work they assigned her. As they spoke about making their daughter do her daily work, they had troubled expressions on their faces.
The father awkwardly put his hands on his daughter's shoulders as he pushed her to face Queenie.
"This is Victoria. Victoria, say hi to Queenie."
"Hi." was all the girl said as she looked at Queenie with a casual expression.
Queenie thought "Oh, a quiet girl. This shouldn't be too hard."
Then after looking at Queenie some more, Victoria began to smirk which made her babysitter feel irritated. She got the feeling that this little girl was looking down on her.
Soon after, Queenie used her magic to put a magical marker on Victoria so she could hear her thoughts even from a distance. She could never guess that this act would help her so much in the near future.
The middle-aged woman told Queenie to show Victoria her room in the school and with a wave of her hand, the key which had been laying on her desk fly over to Queenie and created the image of a map in mid-air. When Queenie made a confused face, the deputy's owl familiar made an irritated hoot before flying off to show Queenie the way.
Queenie took the key, turned to Victoria, and said, "Come on Victoria, let's follow the owl."
Victoria pouted then her father told her "Listen to Queenie now."
Victoria reluctantly followed her babysitter as they walked behind the deputy's owl.
"Why do we need to follow the owl when we have a map?"
Queenie replied, "The owl is taking the trouble to show us the way, why shouldn't we follow it?"
The owl hooted loudly as if he was scoffing at her. After all, only he and Queenie knew that she was bad with finding places.
When they arrived at Victoria's room, Victoria looked around then she pulled out a small treasure chest underneath her bed. Many objects flew out of it and stacked themselves on top of one another. A big teddy bear that covered a fourth of the room laid at the bottom of the pile and multiple Barbie and Ken dolls including Hello Kitty plush dolls were on top of the teddy bear's belly.
Queenie thought "Ugh. So many dolls…"
Queenie looked at Victoria and Victoria looked back at Queenie.
Queenie wondered did Victoria bring any clothes with her while Victoria wondered was Queenie going to give her a tour of the school?
After breaking off the long stare-off between her and Victoria, Queenie asked "So… Where are your clothes?"
Victoria looked up at her with the same poker face she had earlier before replying "Why would I need any clothes? I'm only staying here for one day, right?"
Queenie replied "No, you're not. You're staying here for three months." And Queenie thought to herself "Even if she packed for 'one day', that's a lot of toys…"
Victoria widened her eyes in horror before shrugging her shoulders "I don't know. When are you going to take me on a tour?"
Queenie thought of going back to the office so she could ask Victoria's parents about her clothes but before she could say 'Wait here', Victoria looked out the window and saw a carriage pulled by pegasuses flying up into the air "Oh look. Mama and Papa are leaving."
Well, that was great.
"Ok. Maybe we should start the tour now. Let's head to the mailroom first."
Victoria lowered her brows "Why the mailroom? Why not the potions room? Or the library?"
Queenie flatly replied, "Because you need your clothes."
As Queenie and Victoria made their way to the mailroom, they walked past the library. When Victoria turned and saw a bunch of bookshelves inside the room. She instantly knew it was the library!
Victoria got an idea and she smirked to herself. She turned to her left and tried to find an opening past Queenie. But, unfortunately, there wasn't any. Queenie was walking side by side with her the whole time instead of taking the lead. And before she knew it, they arrived at the mailroom.
Victoria, who had been frustrated that she wasn't able to escape Queenie asked, "Why do we have to write my parents a letter when there are cellphones?"
When they got inside the mailroom, Queenie asked Victoria to write a letter to her parents regarding the matter of her clothes and tried asking a messenger owl to send it. After a long pause, she tried to grab one of the owls to send the letter, but none was within her reach. Finally, Queenie asked Victoria to try requesting an owl before she stepped outside.
Victoria softly asked an owl for help and one of them flew towards her and grabbed her rolled up letter in its claws. Victoria suddenly realized that this was her chance to escape Queenie's watch and get into the library! She softly chanted a spell then poof! In her place was a plant from the library.
Surprised by the plant's sudden appearance, the owls started flying around the plant and hooting loudly. Queenie quickly ran into the room and said out loud, "What the heck?"
"Victoria?" When Queenie moved closer, the owls flew back to their roosting spot and what she saw jolted her. It was a plant!
"WHAT THE HECK?!" Was heard all around the mailroom and the owls hooted loudly because they were shocked by the sudden outburst.
Queenie began yelling louder "QUIET!"
Peace was soon restored to the mailroom. Queenie then closed her eyes and concentration and began focusing to use her magic to track down Victoria through her thoughts. She finally heard a voice in her head saying, "Stupid library."
Queenie smiled "Caught you." Before promptly leaving the mailroom.
Meanwhile, Victoria was standing in front of the doors leading to the library building. She tried casting many spells but for some reason, it was difficult for her to get in. When she turned to the right, she saw a large group of students heading her way. She decided to hide among them to get into the building.
When she successfully got in through the entrance, she wandered around and examined the library, a book suddenly flew past her and into someone's hands, then another, and another. Some people levitated up to get the books they needed.
The sight of it all distracted Victoria as she was walking which made her bump into someone's back!
"Ah!" exclaimed the black-haired girl and Victoria in unison.
After recovering from her initial shock, Victoria pointed at the opposite person and said "You! What are you doing here? I just ditched you earlier!"
Vanessa thought to herself that it was strange seeing a preteen speak in a proper British accent.
Vanessa then replied "What are you talking about? I'm sorry, I think you got the wrong person."
Victoria replied "Don't joke with me! Are you making fun of me?"
From behind Victoria, a voice spoke up "No, she's not making fun of you."
