"Merciful heavens!"
Danielle awoke with a start. Someone was screeching, loud enough to hurt her delicate ears. She threw both paws over them even before she saw who was screaming. It was Aunt Sarah, flailing her bony hands in wild, shaky motions, trying to shoo Danielle from Thomas's bed.
Danielle gave a deep throated groan and squeezed her eyes shut for a single moment, before little Thomas began his own wail. A surge of frustration rose in the spaniel mix. Aunt Sarah was scaring him! He didn't need to be scared.
She let her paws slide from her ears and pushed her way into the boy's lap, where he was sitting up in his bed now, clenching and unclenching his fists against his face, threatening to scratch those pale cheeks. "Hey! Don't do that." Danielle gruffed, nudging one sweaty hand as if she was the true boss of this boy.
Aunt Sarah threw those twitching hands up high and gave a strangled kind of sound, making Danielle steal a cautious, guilty glance in the woman's direction. Would she have to calm her too? Hopefully not. Aunt Sarah was the kind of woman who carried an umbrella around, ready to poke anyone who got in her way. But why, oh why, oh why was she so upset? It didn't make any sense!
Danielle felt Thomas's snotty face against the top of her head, and she relaxed a bit, seeing that he was calming now. She tried her best to listen to Aunt Sarah, but the woman was just screaming about heaven, and fleas, and fur. It hit Danielle then. Aunt Sarah had fleas. Why she was screaming like this though...Danielle shook her head. Thomas made a small sound of protest up there. "Sorry." She mumbled. He grunted a response. Forgiveness, she concluded.
"Aunt Sarah! What's the matter?" Jim Dear came panting into the room. He bent, hands on his knees, and breathed deeply. It looked like the man had run all the way upstairs!
"Aunt Sarah has fleas." Danielle drawled, looking at Jim Dear for answers. He obviously didn't hear her. He was focused on Aunt Sarah, who was pointing one of those stickfingers at Danielle and Thomas. "That dog." She said simply, one short, snippy sentence.
Danielle felt herself shrink. That dog? Jim Dear gave another wheezy breath. "Now, Sarah." He chided gently. "You know as well as anyone that these dogs wouldn't hurt a fly."
"I know that!" Aunt Sarah snapped. "But I still don't condone the sharing of a bed with any animal. Who knows what that dog could have gotten into! Garbage! Worms! The foul possibilities stretch on..."
Danielle couldn't bring herself to take her wide eyes off of the woman. She was angry! She was angry at...that dog. It hurt. Danielle craned her head to look at Thomas. He was staring blankly at the bedsheets, as if he wasn't hearing a word of the conversation. There was a long pause, and then Jim Dear gave a heavy sigh.
"Come on, little lady." He said, grabbing Danielle by her collar. She was too large to simply be picked up now. The dog gave a whine of disapproval, but leapt down from the bed and away from her new companion. She impacted with the floor before she could even register what happened, and promptly landed on her chin with a click of her teeth. She'd lost her footing again!
"Out." Jim Dear commanded, pointing at the door. Danielle crouched to her belly and followed the man's hand signal, crawling to the door. She stopped briefly to steal a glance at Thomas, who was now kicking his legs slowly as he death-stared the sheets. He looked like he was going to have another fit. Danielle lost herself in watching him, until Jim gave his command again. "Out, Danielle." He said, louder, and more sternly this time. She scooted away, faster this time reaching the door. It felt like she had been physically struck. It was confusing. Did Aunt Sarah not want her to befriend Thomas? That couldn't be it. Thomas needed a friend! Danielle snorted. It was all just weird.
"I don't want her sleeping in bed with him. He's sick enough as it is. He'll likely be put away when he's older, you know that..." Danielle drowned the muffled voices out with a sigh. She didn't understand it, and it just made her head hurt.
"Watch out, move!" A barking voice called, as she reached the bottom of the stairs. Danielle was slow to respond, stopping to cock her head first. What? It hit her. Literally. She was tumbling on the ground underneath not one, but two squirming heaps of fur. Scamp let out a loud laugh and bounced away.
"Gosh, Danielle, move means move!" He said, still bouncing. The other dog was spewing apologies. It was Kilian.
"Oh, I am so sorry, I didn't know that you were there, I just kind of ran Scamp right into you." He bubbled, wrinkling his brow. Before Danielle could respond, Scamp gave her a hard nudge, shoulder to shoulder.
"Aw, she's fine with it, aren't ya, Danielle? She's not quite as prissy as Collette and Annette."
"Annette's not prissy." Kilian leapt to defense.
"Yeah!" Danielle found her voice, and forgot quickly about her woes in the moment. "Annette's not prissy." She wasn't sure what prissy was, really. The boys used the word a lot to describe the sisters, and other girls in the neighborhood as well.
"Oh, so you're on their side?" Scamp teased Danielle, who nodded fervently. The grey dog screwed up his face at Kilian, all the while hanging his tongue out in a display of disgust.
"She lets Collette..."pretty" her ears. She's prissy!" Danielle wasn't sure what the connection was here, but it sounded pretty convincing. She looked at Kilian, awaiting his response.
"She does that 'cause Collette likes it!" He backed into a playful crouch. Scamp did the same.
"Oh yeah?" Scamp smirked. "Let's go ask her."
"Do it! I dare you!" The terrier mix barked back. Danielle was jerking her head from one direction to the other, trying to keep up with the two.
"On it!" Before Kilian could say another word, Scamp was off. Kilian groaned, but stayed put, sitting down. The patchy dog shook his head.
"I didn't know you were friends with Scamp!" Danielle woofed cheerfully, plunking down beside the family's newest member. She opened her mouth in a wide, doggish grin. Kilian shrugged casually.
"Annette is getting really close with Angel, so I've been seeing a lot of Scamp." Danielle nodded seriously. Of course. She understood at least this. Angel and Scamp were always together! Everyone knew that. There was an awkward silence. Danielle hadn't really gotten a good chance to get to know this dog yet. Kilian was the one to break it, while Danielle was still grasping for words.
"Sooo...whatcha doing?" Danielle was brought back to reality with a frown. "Nothing." She mumbled, looking at her paws.
"Oh." Another awkward silence.
"Aunt Sarah is mad at me!" Danielle couldn't help but spill then.
Kilian looked slightly taken aback at the outburst. "The cat lady?" He almost stuttered. "I thought she was mad at everyone."
"I fell asleep with the boy." She admitted guiltily, hanging her head. For some reason, this was bad, and she knew it.
"Oh." Kilian repeated the one word, but it was different this time, somehow. Danielle said nothing. She didn't need to. The terrier was still talking. "After I met Annette, we kind of fell asleep together one night. Your dad..." He swallowed hard, as if remembering something scary. It caught Danielle's attention. "Your dad came to get her. He wasn't happy."
"Well why not?" Danielle said, tilting her head. Annette and Kilian slept beside each other every night. No one stopped them. No one ever even said anything about it, like they did when teasing Angel and Scamp.
"He didn't know me. I was a stranger." Kilian explained patiently, looking Danielle directly in the eye. It was odd, the effect it had. As if it could help her understand things better.
"But you weren't gonna hurt her." Danielle countered.
"No. But he didn't know that. I had to earn his trust as well." Danielle was connecting the dots. Aunt Sarah didn't trust her to be alone with Thomas. She was scared that something bad could happen.
"Well." Kilian said after a few moments, jerking Danielle back to the conversation. "I should probably go find Annette before Scamp does."
"Oh, okay." Danielle said, nodding once more as the terrier stood.
"See ya, Danielle." He said, bounding off then.
"Bye!" Danielle bellowed, hoping he heard her in his quick run.
She was alone with her thoughts now. A deep sigh escaped, gusty and long. Aunt Sarah could clearly be heard on the stairs, fussing over Thomas, who was crying his poor heart out over the descent. Danielle stood. She would show Aunt Sarah that she could be trusted!
Chapter 4 and Onwards: s/13622938/1/LAT-Friends-in-Fog-Chapter-4-AND-ONWARDS