Chapter 2: Olive
Olive's POV.
Some days I wish Jade had been born with a different peculiarity, she was gifted with the peculiarity of shapeshifting her age, the older she got the older she could shift. When she was between the ages of two months and three years old, she would uncontrollably shift between the ages of one to six. When she turned three, she got a hold of it by herself, surprisingly.
Jade started going to high school parties when she was five, then when she was seven it was college parties, lately it has been nightclubs with early to late twenty-year olds. I loved my daughter beyond heights, but she could be a handful some days.
I had a couple rules about partying, 1. Don't drink too much, when you are drunk, you tend to let things slip that you usually wouldn't. 2. Come home before 4 a.m. and be ready for school in the morning. 3. One of the most important, don't bring boys home. When Jade gets really tired her concentration on her peculiarity slips, and you don't need a boy freaking out, because the twenty something year old he was just kissing is now a nine-year-old.
She is only nine, yet she already acts like she's a teenager, the irresponsible kind. She could be very sarcastic at times when she wanted to be. I have tried to persuade her to tamp down the sarcasm around the people her age, that did not go as well as I hoped at all
The only reason I asked her to, was because of another mom. This mom is so nosy, once she set up her daughter that's in the same grade as the twins with Kaden, just so she could spy on us. That really upset me when I figured out her plan. Thankfully, she found out nothing except what cereal we buy, and what shampoo we use. The reason she wanted to spy on us was because she suspected Jade was older than she was, maybe the whole being twins thing was a lie. She also wanted to know where she got it from, frankly I am still trying to figure that out.
One day when the twins were three months old, I was looking for Jade, she had shifted again. It was normal at that point for everyone to be on high alert for a wandering toddler. At the same time, I was trying to get Kaden to drink from his bottle, but he refused, so I gave up for the time being. When I did find Jade, she was opening the door for someone, who, I had no idea.
It was Emma, and a boy I've never met. She was a mess, said she was attacked, and needed to see Miss P, but first we talked. I told her about the twins, she told me about her year gone, then we just talked for the sake of talking. Emma went up to see Miss P, when she came back down, she was an even bigger mess. She ignored me when she left, I could only assume it was worse than any of us could imagine.
At dinner there were some questions regarding Emma, and her new boyfriend. Miss P refused to answer any of them directly, all she said was 'she is going through something right now.'
A year later Enoch proposed to me, he wasn't very romantic at all, but he tried, and it was as great as I could expect. After that we moved out together to our first apartment with the kids. The next year I gave birth to my wonderful baby boy Tate.
Tate was also somewhat gifted as well, he could easily find anything, just name it and he could find it, just tell him what you lost, and without any knowledge of what it looked like, he could find it, people included. Tate was almost a walking map.
Tate also had a learning disability, he hadn't been tested, but I could tell by the way he wasn't developing as his siblings. Tate had problems learning new words, he was a late talker, said his first word when he was four, he took his first steps when he was three. On top of all of that he had troubles with making friends, the kids weren't mean to him, they just didn't know he existed. Even when he tried to play with the other kids, they tried to use the biggest words they knew, Tate just couldn't keep up, so he eventually just gave up trying to play with them. Tate didn't talk often when he did it was only a few words at a time.
When Tate turned five, we got him a set of small wooden animals, he got so attached to him. Made up names, and personalities for them, they went on many adventures all over the house as well.
I had a difficult decision to make when he turned six, I could either send him to school, or keep him home. I wanted him to have a normal childhood unlike mine, but I also didn't want him to deal with the children, kids could be so mean. I also knew he would have troubles with the things the teacher would be teaching. So, I made the decision to keep him home, and teach him myself.
Everyone thought it was an absurd idea, but I didn't care what they had to say. I had had teaching from Miss P a lot, so I knew what I was doing. It came to a point where a police officer came to the house demanding I take him to the school, I ended up complying, that was the biggest mistake I made as a parent. After that day he talked less than usual, and it was already little.
From what I heard from Jade and Kaden, Tate was called on many times, and didn't even know what she was talking about, and the kids on the playground thought he was contagious for weirdness. He also came home with sand in his brown hair.
The next time the police came by I may have scared them into thinking they had summoned an all-powerful demon, and that was the last time I heard a cop knock on the door about my son's school attendance.
When we had enough saved, we bought a nice house with three bedrooms, one bathroom. Kaden and Tate shared a room, while Jade got her own, because she was the only girl, and she deserved some privacy after the sleeping arrangements in the apartment.
It was an exceedingly small apartment, but we didn't have much money. Tate slept with us, because he was still crib sized, and the twins shared a room.
Enoch was working at a morgue; his job was to find out the patient's cause of death. The people at the morgue thought he should work as a police force instead, they thought he was an expert detective. When in fact he was just raising them briefly from the dead to ask them directly what killed them.
I worried about Kaden sometimes. He rarely left his room. He was stubborn, and in my opinion, too independent for his age. When I had the time, I tried to spend time with him, but he wasn't interested.
Kaden wasn't like his siblings, he didn't have a peculiarity, or at least not yet I kept telling myself. Sadly, the plain hard truth was that at least at this point he didn't have one.
When he asked one day what his special power was, it broke my heart to tell him he didn't have one. I tried to explain that it could come, not all peculiars are born with peculiarities, he didn't want to hear it. Since then, he has just been very distant.
He spends more time with his comic books than his own family. His friends are intense to say the least. They have their own language, go off for hours, and come back smelling of cigarettes.
These boys were simply crazy, they picked on other boys, younger boys. There was this one little boy I especially felt bad for, I didn't know his name, but he got picked on a lot. Sports balls thrown at him from every which direction, poor kid. Thankfully, Kaden didn't participate in their horrid games.
He just hung out with them, did things I preferred they didn't. For one, smoking. There is no evidence smoking is bad for you, but still, I prefer if they didn't. Same with the drinking. Last week I heard the Milonys and other neighbors had their mailboxes vandalized.
I've tried to talk to him about it, it never goes well. He just defends his 'friends,' and then he becomes even more distant. I tried to get Enoch to talk to him about, father to son, but it always ends with him telling Kaden what killed his latest client.
Enoch is little to no help with the children. I guess I never knew how hard it would be to take care of three children when we moved out of Miss P's. When we moved out, I was unknowingly one month pregnant with Tate. We thought it was time to move out, really get our life together started. Some days I really miss the help.
I was making breakfast this morning, and nobody was up yet. I called everyone.
"Tate, Jade, Kaden, breakfast!" I yelled. The house stayed quiet; nobody was getting up.
I went to knock on bedroom doors as soon as I finished the eggs. First was Tate's.
"Hey sweetie, it is time to get up." I said, I tried not to use contraction with Tate, hoping it would help him pick up on the words more easily. He sat up and nodded his head.
Next was Kaden, I went to open the door, and it was locked. Honestly, I don't know why he had a lock on his door, but he sure used it when he didn't want anyone in his room.
"Kaden, open the door, It's breakfast time." Nothing.
"Come on Kaden, open this door, now." Still nothing.
"If necessary, I'll burn this door down." I threatened, clearly it was an empty threat. Click, the door was unlocked at once.
I walk in, and Kaden's hides his right arm from me under his blankets. What is he hiding from me?
"Let me see your arm." I speak.
"Why?"
"Because I want to see." He showed me his left arm, it was clean.
"Right one please."
"Why?"
"Just show me it."
He shows me his right arm, and I am stunned. Kaden somehow had gotten a tattoo. The tattoo was of a flaming skull and cross bones, I don't know what was more disturbing, what the tattoo was of, or the fact that he got one.
"Why did you get a tattoo? After I explicitly said you couldn't have one! Who did it?" I was angry, but I had to calm down, or else things would catch on fire.
"Everyone else was, and you said I couldn't have one till I was sixteen." That was not the right answer.
"You are not sixteen! Just because your friends do something doesn't mean you have to. If they jumped off a building, would you?"
"Jumping off a building sounds fun." He just grinned.
"Who did it?" Silence was all I got.
"Who did it?!" Still nothing.
"I'm giving you one last chance to tell me the truth, if not, you'll just be grounded longer."
"This is so not fair." He complained.
"Jade doesn't get punished for coming home at 4:30 a.m. or doing it with two men." He continued to complain. Jade being interested in older boys wasn't new, she had been doing it for quite some time. At one point she had a crush on Millard but having sex with two fully grown men was unfamiliar territory. Kaden was probably just trying to make himself look better in comparison, or maybe he was telling the truth, at this point I had no clue.
"That's not what we're talking about. Last chance, how did this happen?" Silence was all I was getting.
"Fine, you're grounded for a month. No friends, comic books, or candy. You go to school, you come home. I might just even pick you up myself to be sure. Got it? Now get up and eat your breakfast." I walked out of his room, next was Jade's.
"Hey, breakfast is ready." Not surprisingly she was still asleep, what had that girl done last night? I nudged her shoulder trying to wake her up.
"Jade, breakfast." She turned onto her other side.
"Come on, time to get up." I continued to nudge her other shoulder.
"Ok then, guess I'll just eat these eggs and blueberry pancakes myself then." Jade sat up, and rubbed her eyes, works every time.
"Quick question, what did you do last night?"
"I went to a nightclub, had a couple beers, and hung out with one of my friends, who happens to be a man."
"A man, tell me about him." Me and Jade had a close relationship, she told me the truth about what she was up to at night, and I didn't harshly judge, unless necessary. I had come to realize that she was growing up faster than I anticipated, and if I wanted to continue to be a person in her life, I was going to have to adapt. The last thing I wanted was another one of my children to push me out of their lives. So as much as I disapproved of her doing certain things, I pretended to be interested.
"He's nice, mysterious, in a good way, protective. I like him."
"He sounds great. How old is he?"
"Twenty-six."
"How old does he think you are?"
"Twenty-two."
"Does he have a name?"
"I think he said his name was Jacob." I paused. Was my little girl really spending time together with that scumbag? I hoped not, I didn't want her little heart to get broken.
"There's also another guy. He's also protective, mysterious, and I get the vibe he is guilt ridden. He seems to really like me, the other night he kissed me."
"He also sounds nice, just try not to lead him on if you're not interested in him that way."
"I know."
"How old is he?"
"Twenty-eight. He doesn't care if I'm six years younger than him." Jade used finger quotations when she said six years.
"We'll be careful, and come to breakfast, it's getting cold."
"Sure, just let me get dressed."
"Sure."
I came out to the kitchen, I saw Tate looking at an old photo album, one I had made before any of my kids were born. It was filled with pictures of all my other friends from my time with Miss Peregrine. I hadn't looked at it in a long time.
Tate pulled out a picture, I instantly knew who it was, it was Emma. She was hovering, holding her boots, showing off her peculiarity. How I missed her. She just had this personality that lit up a room, she was sarcastic, and funny. I tried to remember her for who I knew, not the person she was when I last saw her, which was nearly nine years ago.
Tate pointed to the picture and shrugged his shoulders. I knew what he meant; he was wondering who the girl in the photo was. It said on the back, but he wasn't a good reader at all, he could read a few simple words, but that was all.
"That's Emma, an old friend of mine." I sat sitting down on the chair across from him.
"She can float, her boots keep her from floating away." I said while pointing to Emma's lead boots.
"Sometimes we would tie a rope onto her so she would not float away." He kept on staring at the picture like he was trying to remember where he had seen her, then he got up and pointed to a boy in a picture of the whole primary school the twins went to.
He had dark short blonde hair, short compared to the others he was surrounded by. He was wearing a long sweater, and his jeans were ripped, but what stood out to me the most was the kid's black eye. How had he obtained it? I wondered how this boy was connected to Emma.
Tate pointed to the picture of Emma once again, then to the boy. He continued to do this till it finally hit me. Tate was trying to tell me that this little boy was Emma's son, the same little boy that Kaden's 'friends' beat up.
If her son went to the same school as the twins, she couldn't be too far away, but how had I never seen her before in the market, or at school events? So many questions.
The twins came to the table, and sat down, Kaden was angry and upset, not surprisingly. He refused to talk to me.
We ate breakfast, and the twins went off to school. I had the entire day, I didn't know if this was a good idea, but I had to try.
"Tate, can you find her?" He stared at the picture, no he was studying it, then he nodded, and went walking out the door, I followed him.