Frollo woke up the next morning and noticed Sadie snuggled close to him with her head on his other arm. With a soft smile, he lifted his arm and left down the stairs. Looking out the front window, the rain was hitting the pavement harder than yesterday. He went to the kitchen and picked up her bag to bring it to the bedroom.
"Sadie?" He lightly shook her left shoulder. "I'll be ready to go in a minute." She murmured and shooed him away. "That won't be necessary. It appears that you have envisioned correctly."
Sadie lifted her head and rubbed her eyes. "Huh?" 'She's so tired.' The judge sighed. "It's raining harder outside than yesterday." "I'm sure there's something waterproof in here somewhere." She shrugged and lay her head back down. "I'll look later."
"You most certainly will not." Frollo lay back next to her. "And why not? What am I? Four?" Sadie covered her mouth with the blanket. "Don't get smart with me!" She narrowed her eyes at the rise of his voice. "Jeez. Why are you so controlling?" She stood up and walked over to her bag, taking out one of her puzzle books. 'Last time I checked, this was empty.'
Sadie flipped through all the pages then smiled. 'Great. Now where can I find a pencil?' "What are you looking for?" "A pencil." She left the room to go look for one. He got up to follow her. "I'll be right back." Sadie hurried down the stairs into where Clopin and Quasi slept last night. Thankfully they were both awake. Esmeralda was sitting in a chair in the corner of the room.
"Morning guys." She smiled and grabbed a pencil off of the coffee table.
"Hey." Esmeralda looked up from a book that she was reading while the boys were playing a game of checkers. "What are you reading?" "It's an old one. It's a story about two male friends who run into all kinds of adventures. One is like a mentor because his friend is disabled." Sadie squinted her eyes as she tried to read the title on the cover. "Oh. Of Mice and Men. Cool." "What are you up to?" "I was looking for a pencil to solve puzzles of my new books." "Ah. Good luck." She smiled and went back to reading. "Thanks."
Sadie left back up the stairs and lay on the bed on her stomach. "Let's see.." She opened the first page and automatically skipped to the third difficulty. After letting out a sigh, she fixed her grip on the pencil and started to pin point where each number went.
"What on earth is that chaos?" Frollo sat on the bed and watched her.
"It's controlled chaos your honor." She smirked and filled in most of the numbers by using the clues already given.
"Give me that." He took the pencil out of her hand. "Seriously?" She groaned. "Whatever this is, it is giving me a headache." "I didn't say that you had to watch!" He blinked. "I've done it before many times. Do you want me to show you how? It's not hard once you get the hang of it." She tried not to laugh.
"Fine. This had better not be another form of witchcraft." "Trust me. It's not. Now." She turned the pages all the way back to difficulty one. "Now. The basics, if you will. This." She outlined with the pencil. "Is called a grid." He rolled his eyes and looked to the side. "It's worse than I thought." Frollo turned his head back to her. "Continue."
Sadie yawned. "So. You see how each box up, down, and across has nine squares? They are all reserved for the numbers one to nine. But the same number can not be used twice." "Okay. And?" "Let's start with the first. Now the numbers two, eight, seven, and four are already laid out for us. So where do you think number one will go?" The judge shook his head and silenced her. "I'm more of a silent learner. Do you mind if I just watch?"
"Alright. But I can do these ones pretty fast." "I see." He cleared his throat.
Sadie sighed and filled in each box one by one. In a minute and a half, she was done. "Goodness. Where did you learn to do that?" "This? School. I taught myself to do the harder ones though. Even my parents can't solve them." She hummed and returned to the puzzle she was working on earlier. "Oh really? What other talents do you possess?" She closed her eyes with a heavy sigh.
"I'm sorry. That was because of me. Not you. I just need some quiet in order to concentrate." "Ah. I see. Well then, I will be right back." She shrugged. "Okay. Thank you."
Frollo entered the den downstairs and looked through the books on the bookcases. Esmeralda, Clopin, and Quasimodo didn't even notice him. After picking up a book, the judge went over to the coatrack to retrieve his judicial attire and left back upstairs.
Sadie narrowed her eyes at the page and checked all the squares before filling in the last number. 'Jeez.'
"A lot of thinking?" "Yeah." She scratched her head and turned the page back to difficulty two. "Witchcraft." He whispered. "You can't assume everything that you don't understand is witchcraft." She giggled. "Like the book you're holding."
"I have in fact read this one many times before heathen." He folded up his robe and set it on a chair, placing his hat on top. "Why? Did you want me to read to you?" Sadie quickly shook her head, causing him to press his lips in suspicion. "Very well then." He sat on the bed with his back supported by the pillows.
"Animal Farm?" "Yes. It is based on the rise and fall of the Russian Revolution of 1917." "Oh." She closed her book and set it on the floor. "Yes. The title is rather misleading. But it is very interesting." "Cool. So it's about the conflicts that followed from the animals' points of view?" "I will let you find out after I'm done reading it." She sighed. "Okay."
Frollo scratched his forehead. "You really are ridiculous aren't you? Come here." He opened his right arm. Sadie climbed to the top of the bed and rested her head on his shoulder. He cleared his throat and opened to the first page. "Better?" He lightly smiled. She nodded.
"Mr. Jones, of the Manor farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes. With the ring of light from his lantern dancing from side to side, he lurched across the yard, kicked off his boots at the back door, drew himself a last glass of beer from the barrel in the scullery, and made his way up to bed, where Mrs. Jones was already snoring."
He continued to read on to chapter three once he noticed Sadie with her eyes closed. He set down the book and placed a hand at her back. 'Oh yes. You definitely despise me.'
She lifted her head an hour later. 'Gosh. His voice is so hypnotizing.' Sadie then realized he wasn't in the room. 'Huh. Might as well shower. Even though it's like ten o'clock.' She grabbed her hoodie from the door and walked across the hall to the bathroom, closing the door.
The girl then put her clothes back on and tried to look for a comb or hairbrush. "Seriously?" She opened the door to let the steam out and dried her hair with the towel, not even bothering with the braid Frollo had made. Just as he passed by, Sadie hung up the towel and shook her head. "Air dry." She shrugged and left downstairs.
Everyone, Frollo included, was back in the kitchen. Clopin flipped open the book of maps in hopes of finding a loading dock within a few days distance. Quasimodo scratched his head as no sight of any showed up. "Is it hard to build a boat?"
The judge remained silent as he began to think.
"That would be far too time consuming." Sadie sat in a chair beside Esmeralda instead of Frollo to avoid any suspicion. "Oh. Right." He sighed. "It was an interesting idea though."
"Here we go." Clopin pointed. "There's a port about ten miles away from here. So that will take about maybe three days. That depends on how far we decide to go." "Well we aren't in any real danger so.." Sadie shrugged. "So it's settled then." Esmeralda smiled and sat up to empty the last of the spaghetti onto a plate. "Perhaps I should make some more." "Well it is lunchtime." Clopin blinked. Esmeralda pressed her lips, unsure. "I wouldn't worry about it. We do have five cans left." Sadie stood up to get two more from her bag.
Sadie hurried down and set them on the counter. She then scavenged through the rest of the cabinets as Esmeralda boiled a pot of fresh water.
Frollo did not lose his sight on the girl. 'She just cannot stay still. Perhaps there is a medicine cabinet around here.' He stood up and left the room.
Once clearing out all the empty containers, Sadie pulled out a roll of clear plastic bags. 'Do they seal? No? What kind of bag doesn't close?' She then smacked herself on the forehead as she found it. It was blended in. Sadie took the entire roll and went to shove it in her backpack.
The judge quickly took his hands out of the bathroom drawer as she passed by. He sighed and continued to look through it. She backed up and stood in the doorway. "Find something?" He cleared his throat. "I have not." The girl knew right away that it was a flat out lie. She folded her arms and blinked. "Do not look at me like that! I told you that there is nothing here." He scratched his forehead.
"You were planning on drugging me weren't you?"
'She is always one step ahead of me!' "My senses are brighter than your future will ever be." She smirked then walked over to him, now serious. "Did you really?" "Yes. I was. Due to the fact you are too unpredictable for me to control." "Seriously? That's the best you could come up with?" Her eyes narrowed. "You are just as unpredictable as I am! You don't see me plotting anything shallow like that!"
"Keep in mind that you are younger Sandra." He touched her cheek with the back of his hand then moved it down to her chest. "Much..younger." She closed her eyes. "Please don't mention that." He felt her heart beat rapidly against her chest and inwardly smiled. "The truth is always right." "I know that! But don't word it that way!" "Then how should I?" Frollo clenched his teeth. "Don't even acknowledge it. Or is that too complicated for you?" He stared at her, in a hope that she would rethink what she had just said.
Sadie left the room and rubbed her eyes. "If you want me to listen to you, you shouldn't run away when partaking in a conversation." "Is there really anything useful that you can tell me at this point? Your actions certainly spoke louder than words haven't they?" Sadie gulped.
"Who are you to judge me?" "Oh I don't know. Perhaps a person who actually knows right from wrong!" He groaned. "I know far more than you ever will!" "Oh really? Okay." She cleared her throat. "What do you put in a garbage can?" Frollo rolled his eyes. "Garbage." "What do you put on a bookshelf?" "Books." He tightened his eyes. "And what do you put in a toaster?" "Toast." "Actually the correct answer is bread." She grinned. Frollo quickly shook his head. "I..g..Leave!" He shouted.
She left down the hall with a sense of pride. "Ignorant people are so dumb." Sadie picked up her sudoku book and continued to solve each puzzle.
"Fool me like that again and you will regret it."
She reluctantly dropped her pencil and looked over to him. "What? There isn't a greater regret that I can possibly feel other than being stuck with you on this little guilt trip." "Guilt trip? Hm. Yes. You did seem rather innocent just hours ago." Sadie tightly blinked. 'Shit.' "I was deprived of sleep." He then softly smiled. "You are better at creating lies than I am." "I'm not lying! God! You think I can just take every mental and physical punch you throw at me don't you?"
"I never said that anything in life is free." Sadie blushed. "Why don't you just admit it?" "Admit what?" She picked up her pencil again.
He walked over and the girl sprang off the bed. Frollo simply walked around the mattress towards her and leaned his hands against the wall, prohibiting her from escaping. "Our feelings are more similar than you may think."
Sadie looked away with tears in her eyes. Frollo sighed and stood back up. 'She cries a lot when displaying her emotions.' "Sadie? What's wrong?"
She shook her head and went to sit on the edge of the bed. "Is it personal?" The girl nodded and shut her eyes. "It's my fault. Not yours." She whispered. "Shall I leave the room then?" "Y..You can stay if you want to. I don't know why you would." "Okay. End this self pity." He knelt in front of her, scratching the back of his head.
"Do you..remember when I told you that I knew boys who wanted to be more than just a friend to me?" "Don't tell me where I think this is going." He sat beside her. She nodded and fell back, face first, onto the bed. "One of them assaulted me." Her voice muffled against the sheets.
He huffed. But before he could speak, Sadie sat back up. "And yes I was being a brat to you. You had every right to hurt me. But.." "Sadie. Take a deep breath." She instead held it in but caught it as she felt his hand lightly squeeze hers.
"You know I will never touch you anywhere you don't want me to without your consent. It was definitely not your fault." She sat closer to him. "I know. But the flashback of it still hurts." Sadie laid back on the bed, looking at the lit ceiling fan above. "The world is cruel and wicked." "No kidding." She blinked. "And for the record, you are not a brat."
Her voice cleared up but her eyes didn't.
"You may be a pain but you are not a brat." "So I guess you can say that we are two sides of the same coin?" She hummed. "I suppose so." He helped her sit up and wiped her eyes with the bed sheets.
"Why does it rain so much in Paris anyway?" "That's a good question. However, I am as clueless about weather patterns as you are." He stood up and held out a hand to her. She sighed and took ahold of it. "Don't hold your feelings in. Alright? You may not trust me physically but my lips are sealed." Sadie lightly smiled as they left down the stairs. Frollo let go as they entered the kitchen.