Drinks
I do not own Artemis Fowl or any other canon characters.
Lunch went well. It had been perfectly polite and Caroline had chosen to ignore the light strain the Angeline had over Artemis. Caroline had spent most of her time picking at her food than eating it, and staring at the people around the table than contributing to the conversation. She had caught Artemis glancing at his watch every so often, and she notice the fact that her grandparents had specific spots at the table (a place had been set to accommodate her grandfather, who was a lefty), and also that someone was watching the lunch through a crack in the kitchen door.
She had started up a light discussion with Artemis about the art in the front hall, and about who had painted the Fowl portraits, and was the stone really as old as she thought?
Through their little conversation, Artemis was able to deduce that Caroline's intelligence was slightly above average, and that she was very observant. He also watched how she ate very little, and suspected an eating disorder.
When Angeline Fowl invites you over for drinks, she means drinks. Caroline stared wide-eyed at her grandparents and the thin woman.
Artemis just looked bored.
"Holy shit, Artemis… Does this happen a lot?" They were both sitting on the same chesterfield sofa, Caroline looking slightly alarmed and the boy next to her was reduced to picking at the weave of the sofa to occupy his time.
"Unfortunately, that is the case; your grandparents get smashed with my mother at least twice a week."
Caroline's mouth formed a little 'o' shape, and she watched her grandfather laugh raucously at something her grandmother said.
"Oh god this is embarrassing."
"You'll get used to it. Eventually."
The two teenagers sat in silence, just watching what was going on before their very eyes. Then Angeline turned to Caroline and smiled a slightly inebriated smile at her. Caroline smiled back, awkwardly.
"Honey, I can't wait for you to meet the kids, but until Wednesday, we could spend some time together and go shopping or just talk." From behind the woman, Elyse Edderstein nodded furiously.
Caroline didn't know how to react. She looked at Artemis for reassurance, but no help came from the boy. She smiled unsurely and nodded a yes.
"Oh Elyse, Karl, she's so adorable."
Caroline reflected that she was at least two inches on the woman, and maybe it was some sort of drunk confusion or grandeur. She seriously considered pouting and arguing the fact, but she let the woman go on with her belief.
Minutes passed.
"What do you usually do when my grandparents are over?" Artemis seemed to consider his answer for a second.
"I excuse myself and say that I have to get back to studying."
"But you can't do that now, seeing as you came home from term a week early." She grinned sardonically at him. He looked at hard for a second, as if judging the response to everything else he knew about her. It sickened him slightly how fake her interaction was, but he was sure it sickened her as well.
"I can show you around." Caroline just nodded.
The manor was beautiful enough, but Caroline hadn't gone on the tour to appreciate that. In fact, Artemis wasn't really showing her around as much as she was just following him.
Artemis noticed how Caroline had the slightly annoying habit of dragging her feet. The silence (besides her heels dragging) was absolute, and he was rather surprised when she broke the silence.
"How can you deal with that all the time?" Her voice had gone flat and dead, the same way it had been during the flight. She had dropped the act, but why?
"Deal with what?" He knew very well what she was talking about. He imagined her rolling her eyes.
"I'm guessing that your parents are really," she searched for the word, "assertive in your life. How do you deal with that?" Artemis suddenly realized that Caroline was left alone as much as she wanted as home, and that she barely ever saw her parents. It wasn't very healthy, especially because of what had happened to her.
"I didn't really have parents for two years; it makes you come to appreciate them." That was the end of that discussion. The girl unnerved him a little bit. If he hadn't met her on the plane, her act would've had him fooled.
They reached the study, where he let her in and warned her not to mess with anything too much. She nodded and went over by one of the book cases, where she picked up a book and curled up in an armchair. Within minutes, the room was silent except for the clacking of typing and the turning of pages.
Forty five minutes later, Artemis had forgotten that he wasn't by himself and almost had a heart attack when the heavy psychology textbook fell to the ground.
Caroline was asleep again. Surely that wasn't healthy.
Sorry, this is kind of a filler chapter.
I'm pretty sure that next chapter will have some more action and everything will start to speed up.
Thanks for my reviewers (: you guys made my day.
Sorry if Caroline is a bit of an angstball in this chapter, but you would be too.
I had to erase about half this chapter because I made Artemis kinda stupid. I hope I did better now.
Pwease R&R (:
