Chapter 5: Consequences
Adriana heads upstairs with her backpack on her shoulders and skateboard in hand and goes to her room, the furthest at the end of the hall. She pushes it open to see the boxes and her furniture skewed everywhere. She'd have to get her mom and Michael to help her move them in the positions she wanted.
She flops down on her empty mattress and shuts her eyes. Not exactly the best way to end her first day at a new school, but at least she learned a few of her classmates' names.
She checks her own wound sustained in the accident before rolling over to gaze at the ceiling.
Cobwebs and a few spiders are inhabiting her ceiling and down in the far corners of her room. The ceiling is supposed to be a white colour, but with the thick layer of dust that's covering it, it appears grayer and definitely grimy. This house was pretty disgusting and who knows what else is living in the attic or in the closets… mice probably or other creatures that made a place like this their home.
Her mom was having people come in and do a thorough cleaning, industrial-strength if Adi had anything to say about it. The problem was cleaning would still be a slow process because her historian mother would insist on checking every inch of the house to see if it was antique or historical in some way and might require extra attention or care. While living in old houses wasn't a bad thing, it's just that they ended up being pretty dirty and also in need of a lot of repairs. It's too bad her dad was out on base for another week. He'd be back after that and he could help with moving things around and fix what needed to be fixed.
"Has anyone seen my reading glasses?" Mrs. Walton calls out. "Adriana?"
"On it," she moans, getting up from her bed and heading to the master bedroom.
She looks for the box marked Bedroom and digs through the one filled with clothes and other soft objects. A weird habit her mother had was to put things in strange places to keep them safe... although it was more likely that she was always so scattered-brained that she put objects in weird places and forget about them. For example, her reading glasses, instead of keeping them in her purse or briefcase for the move, she likely had them wrapped in some soft clothing to keep them safe. Her toothbrush was often in her slippers because both were things she needed at night and her paperclips were always connected in a chain in her jewelry box… well usually, due to Dr. Walton's constant research and historical documentation, stocks of paperclips were always scattered around the house to stay organized. There was even a stash in the bathroom somewhere. Fortunately, despite this habit, Adriana was always there to find them.
Adriana opens the box and digs inside.
Sure enough, in a rolled-up pair of socks, she finds them.
The girl exits the room and begins to head for the stairs.
Suddenly...
*Creak*
A sound comes from the nearby linen closet… or what will be the linen closet.
At first, Adriana ignores it and continues to the stairs.
*Creak* *Creak*
The girl pauses at the top of the stairs and looks back over her shoulder.
Probably a rat, she thinks and shrugs.
She's about to take the first step when.
*Creak* *Creak* *Creak* *Creak*
Something was inside the closet because that sure wasn't a creaky door.
Then there's another noise:
Hmmmmmmm
A weird humming noise. That did not sound like a rat at all.
Adriana swallows, wondering whether she should find out or ignore it.
HMMMMMMMMMM
The humming gets louder.
Maybe it's a piece of machinery or the heater, she rationalizes.
However, the sound keeps her at the stairs. Her heart is pounding loudly, and she swallows.
Her body seems to move on its own and she slowly begins to walk towards the door. Her mind thinks about what the kids said about her place being haunted by ghosts…. Maybe she shouldn't have joked about it.
Her own footsteps creaking on the floorboards make it even worse. She inhales sharply and reaches a hand out to grab the knob.
Her nervous eyes could be seen in the brass finish.
With a jerk of the handle, it opens with a low…
*Squeeeak*
Opening the linen closet…
She sees nothing but darkness inside, except…
"BOO!" Michael shrieks.
Adriana falls back onto her butt and lets out a scream of shock, her heart skipping a beat and she stops breathing.
As soon as she realizes who it is, her shock vanishes, and she gets up to tackle Michael to the ground.
"YOU DWEEB!" she screams, hitting him in the stomach and smacking him anywhere she can. "YOU'RE THE BIGGEST JERK!"
She continues hurling the insults, while her brother tries to hit back and push her away.
The two siblings begin to wrestle and scream at each other until Andrea Walton comes up the stairs.
"What is going on here?!" she demands.
She reaches over and using all her strength, she pries her two children apart.
"YOU ARE SUCH A LOSER!" Adriana screams.
"I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE BUT WHAT AM I?" Michael fires back.
Mrs. Walton has to use both hands to keep her eldest and much taller son from overpowering her and use her legs to push her daughter back.
"That jerk hid in the closet and scared me," Adriana says, glaring daggers at him.
"You should have seen your face!" he laughs, his anger turning to delight. "It was priceless."
"Michael Nevada Walton, how many times do I have to tell you to stop tormenting your sisters?"
"Clearly not enough," Adi retorts.
"Let me handle this Adriana, I'll deal with you in a minute," Mrs. Walton says sharply. She then turns back to her son. "Well."
"Come on Mom, it was only a joke and Adriana is just being a baby."
"I'M NOT A BABY!" she shouts. "YOU'RE JUST A JERK."
Mrs. Walton has to continue shielding her children from each other and keeping them apart.
"Answer me Michael, how many times?" she says.
"Like 15," he smirks smugly, knowing it's the wrong answer.
Adi sticks her tongue out at him. "At least Math is the only thing you're good at."
"ENOUGH ADRIANA!" her mother snaps. She turns to Michael. "I'm glad you can count because that is how many chores you'll be doing during your grounding."
"Oh, come on Mom!" Michael whines. "It was just a little Halloween joke and besides it wasn't Ginny who I scared."
"I'm including Ginny in your punishment. You are going to make her a nervous wreck and be afraid of a house we just bought. I want you to start taking responsibility for your actions and acting more your age. You're almost 16 Michael, I want you to start acting like it and show some consideration for other people's feelings."
The blonde-haired teen just wants to roll his eyes, but he refrains himself, lest he receives more chores to do.
"You're not a child anymore Michael, you need to think about other people, not just yourself and learn that your actions have consequences. Something that seemed harmless at the time could create bigger problems or seriously hurt someone else. Do you understand me?"
Adriana feels some satisfaction that her brother has been punished for tormenting her, but she knew deep down, he was just going to wait a few days and do it again. He never learned and his head was thick enough that anything their mom said didn't make it to his brain, not even close.
"I said, do you understand me?" she says with an edge to her voice.
"Yeah," he says.
"Good, now go put dust cloths on all the furniture downstairs as your first chore. We need them ready for the cleaners coming tomorrow."
Michael stomps down the stairs, making sure that every step was louder than the last, then Mrs. Walton turns to her daughter.
"As for you Adriana Juneau Walton, what have I told you about fighting?"
"He started it," she says.
"And you reacted to it. I thought I always told you to use your words."
"Because it doesn't do anything. Talking never works for him. The only way he stops is if you belt him the gut."
"No, he will listen if you allow me to handle it. Now… how many times did you slap your brother?"
Adi sighs, knowing where this was going. "8, I think," she answers.
"That's your number of chores, now where are my reading glasses?"
The two women begin to look for them and Adi finds them against the wall, then quickly wishes she hadn't.
"Found them," she says, holding them up.
The frames were bent, one lens was scratched and the other had popped out completely.
"Adriana,"
"I'm sorry Mom, they must've slid from my hand when I fell."
"It's fine, I guess I won't be reading the mover's bill for a couple of days," Mrs. Walton says, trying to sound positive despite being disappointed.
"CONSEQUENCES FOR YOUR ACTIONS!" Adriana calls down at Michael. "YOU BROKE MOM'S GLASSES!"
"NO WAY, YOU DID!" he yells.
He appears at the bottom of the stairs to shout at his sister some more.
"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO PUSHED ME"
"YOU PUNCHED ME IN THE STOMACH!"
"ENOUGH, BOTH OF YOU!" Mrs. Walton practically shouts. "Anymore arguing and I'm adding new chores. Adriana you now have to do nine chores for punching your brother and Michael I want you to leave your sister alone."
Adi sighs and sticks her tongue out at her brother.
"Go stack the boxes in the rooms," her mother says. She wants to keep at least a level between her children for now.
She descends the stairs with her mangled glasses and goes to call the optometrist for new ones. Ginny follows her mother and asks a lot of questions about what happened, but Mrs. Walton only gives vague answers.
She sits at the dining room table, wondering how she was going to go through her notes for next week's interview at the museum and keep the peace between her children and keep them from tearing each other apart. Sometimes she wishes that the two would learn to appreciate each other and understand the consequences of fighting… nothing ever gets done and nothing is ever fixed.
A/N: For Halloween and the always loyal Knight-Bishop, thanks for all your support