A/N: Hey, guys! I am back! Thank you so much for the support and for your patience. I am happy to say that I am back on Fanfiction for good and I will not be taking anymore extended vacations from writing. Miss Peregrine has been on my mind and I watched the movie to get the Minnette reels cranking again. I started this chapter months ago and finished it today, so if it flows kinda funny, I'm sorry.
Question.
Am I doing all right when it comes to playing the part of Miss Peregrine? Is her dialogue okay and does she act somewhat like you guys expect her to act?
The next morning, sometime around four a.m., I awoke flabbergastingly from a dead sleep. There was an odd chill in the air, and the wind had picked up outside. For a mere moment I just lay there, staring at the ceiling, curious as to why things felt so different.
First thing's first, the wind never blew at night, not this much. It was totally out of character for the loop. The air had always remained still, after all, we were reliving the same day over and over again. The wind should have not been blowing even the smallest gust, let alone what it was doing just outside my window.
Utterly confused, I slipped from my bed, and went to my French doors. I opened them quietly and stepped out onto the balcony. Everything appeared as it should have. Brilliant crescent moon towering above the treetops, crickets singing, not a single light coming from the house. But the gusts of wind that were subtle yet enough to blow my hair from my face was something that was unexpected and unwelcome.
I wondered if anyone else had noticed.
My ymbryne senses were not what they should have been, but I had been able to use them quite frequently to feel-out Miss Peregrine. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and attempted to focus. To my dismay, I felt her as I always felt her, she was near and was stable.
Breathing lightly, I somehow knew that something was odd, and that Miss Peregrine was unaware of the oddness.
Not thinking of a way to do something about the odd wind, I forced myself back to bed and I allowed the wind gusts to sing me back to sleep.
Hours later, I awoke once more and slipped into a long black sundress. I pinned my hair up and headed from my room.
My expectations to find the children crowded in the dinning room, waiting for Miss Peregrine to serve breakfast were very high. Things in the loop were on a tight schedule and I could only help but expect things to happen at their correct times.
It appeared that my breakfast expectations were much too high.
Perched at the end of the table, with her perfectly pinned gray hair, eyes sunken in due to her age, and familiar sly grin, laughing about with Miss Peregrine, was the figure of the one and only Miss Avocet.
My heart sunk immediately.
Miss Avocet had arrived to take me to Blackpool.
"Miss Stonington!" she exclaimed happily when she took notice of me in the doorway. "What a pleasure it is to see you!"
Knowing that being sent away with her was not an option, I decided to act the part, and I lit my face up with a smile.
"Miss Avocet," I said, "welcome back to Cairnholm."
My eyes wandered in Miss Peregrine's direction. Something felt off about her. I took her in for a moment and studied the features of her face. She looked exactly as she had the night previous. But she felt different. I noticed that there were small bags under her eyes.
"Miss Avocet has come to collect you," Miss Peregrine said proudly. "She will take you to Ymbryne Academy."
I nodded. "I am thrilled," I said with pride.
Miss Peregrine motioned me to sit across from her, in the seat that was to the right of Miss Avocet. Miss Peregrine toddled to the kitchen, and returned with a steaming hot cup of tea. She placed it before me, pecked a kiss on the top of my head and returned to her seat. She could be so flowy when she had to be.
"Now, then," Miss Avocet said, clasping her hands together. "It is rather a journey of variety we must make to Blackpool. "
"Will I be required to fly?" I asked.
Miss Avocet smiled. "Not quite yet. We shall save the Birding for the academy."
Miss Peregrine giggled lowly, and winked at me from behind her glasses. I shot her a small smile. I could feel her absence already, although she was right in front of me. I knew that I would miss Miss Peregrine and the children, but I was sure that I would be allowed to come and visit them.
Miss Peregrine clasped her hands together happily. "Oh, it's been so long since I've been to Ymbryne Academy," she chided. "It feels as if its been decades."
Miss Avocet sipped her tea. "I can assure you, Alma, not much has changed at all," she informed her with a grin. "In fact, if you were to return, you'd find things almost exactly as you left them- save for a small alteration in the kitchen staffing."
I sat silently for a little while and drank my tea as the two ymbrynes chattered about the "good old days," at the academy. They were on the subject of flight lessons when I felt something deep uproot in Miss Peregrine's emotions, and it was almost like I had slipped inside of her feelings.
"Miss Stonington," rang out the voice of Miss Peregrine, withdrawing me from the feelings she emitted. "I suggest you go and pack your bags. I'm sure Miss Avocet would like to get going."
Whether Miss Peregrine liked it or not, I could literally feel her heart start to ache. As amazing as her ability to act opposite of her emotions was, she was human, well, syndrigast human, she was forced to acknowledge that she had feelings altogether.
I gave a quiet "Yes, Headmistress," as I scooted from my seat and strode from the dining room.
Packing my things slowly seemed like a perfect way to prolong my leaving, but all it seemed to do was cause my heart to long more. I folded each piece of clothing sleeve-by-sleeve and cuff-by-cuff, my eyes tracing over every seam of every clothing I owned. I came to finish a lot sooner than I anticipated, and I stood, just taking in the beauty of my bedroom. How beautiful it was, and I couldn't help but wonder just how long it would be before I was to come back to be in it. I was determined to return to Miss Peregrine and the children as soon as my schooling was finished.
Saying farewell to my room mentally, I wiped a single tear from my eye, stiffened my posture, took hold of the fully loaded luggage dolly, and dragged it down the hall, carried it down the vast staircase, and set the bul beside the front door.
I hadn't so much as turned around when I saw Claire come bolting up the hall from the kitchen. She was sobbing. She jumped, latched onto my neck, and muzzled into it. I encircled my arms around her and I carried her to the drawing room.
"It'll be okay, Claire," I cooed. "I'm not going away forever."
"I don't want you to go at all," she sobbed. "I want you to stay and help Miss Peregrine take care of us!"
I ran my hand through her golden curls, and her backmouth stuck out its tongue, licking my fingers, like the way a sad puppy would. The tongue was smooth and warm and it actually freaked me out a little. Ignoring the odd feeling, I allowed the backmouth to continue to lick my fingers until they were soggy. I'm not sure how long I sat there holding onto little Claire, but it had to have been long enough, because before long, the girl began to snore softly against my neck.
Sighing, I gingerly rose from the settee, and carried her down the hall to the dining room, where Miss Peregrine and Miss Avocet still sat. There eyes met me immediately as I entered and went to the place I had sat just a couple hours before.
Miss Peregrine, smiling at me holding Claire, went to stand from her seat.
"It's all right, Miss P," I said, shifting Claire on my shoulder. With my foot, I hooked the chair and pulled it away from the table. "I've got it," I assured her. I scooted the chair out and I sat down in it gently. When I was settled, I lifted my legs and placed them into the empty chair beside me, cradling Claire even closer to me.
"My, my, my, Miss Stonington," whispered Miss Avocet. "What a loving mark you've left on these children."
I wrapped my arms around Claire and snuggled my face into the top of her head. Her curls smelled sweetly of the shampoo that Miss Peregrine handmade from flower extracts.
"I love them," I replied. I looked at Miss Peregrine, whose smile faded a tad.
Miss Peregrine and Miss Avocet exchanged a glance.
"One of the very things I adore about Miss Stonington is her gentility. Surely you recall her kind and loving ways from when she aided you in caring for me after my unfortunate situation," Miss Peregrine chirped.
Miss Avocet sipped her tea. "Of course."
Internally I felt as if I wanted to cry. Externally I did my best to conceal my emotion. I knew Miss Peregrine wanted me to be strong and to simply accept my fate, but as I sat there holding Claire, I found myself questioning everything. I could come back to Miss Peregrine's loop if I pleased, but doing so before my time would be failure. And the last thing I wanted was to disappoint Miss Peregrine.
A while passed whilst Miss Peregrine and Miss Avocet kept on with their chatter. I found myself so comfortable snuggled with Claire that I began to drift off myself.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and I jerked awake. I looked up into the misty eyes of Miss Peregrine. A quick glance around the room told me that Miss Avocet had left.
"She's out in the garden waiting for you," said Miss Peregrine softly. "I sent Horace to collect your things from your chambers. I suggest you ready yourself." Then the oddest thing happened. Miss Peregrine ran her fingers through the ends of my hair for a mere moment.
"My dear," she added as she withdrew her hand from my raven hair.
Very gingerly she then collected the sleeping Claire from my lap and gathered her in her own arms.
"She will want to bid you farewell with the lot," Miss Peregrine said. "I will go and see to it that she's awake in a timely manner." She then disappeared somewhere into the house carrying Claire.
My heart sank into my chest as I got to my feet and I stretched. Considering that all I had left to do was gather my dolly of luggage, I made my way very slowly through the house. I ran my fingertips over everything I could on my way through the drawing room and out into the hall. For the sake of future reminiscing, I stood in the doorway to the kitchen and just looked around. It would be a long while before I would be able to cook in the kitchen, there was no doubt about that.
I was pulled from my silent sulking by a voice.
"Minnette?" came the voice of Jacob. "Miss Avocet is waiting. Horace brought your luggage down and it's on the porch."
Gulping sadly, I scanned the room one last time and turned slowly.
Jacob patted me on the back as I walked passed him. The house around me had been home for me for only a handful of months, but it was my favorite of my two homes undoubtedly. I would miss it here, the house, the beautiful garden, the children, and especially, Miss Peregrine.
I did everything in my power to subside my urges to sprout tears. Jacob kept his hand on my shoulder and escorted me out the front door.
Outside the children were lined up on each side of the front pathway. Miss Avocet stood at the end, beaming at me. My luggage was perched beside her. The thing that struck me as odd was that Miss Peregrine was nowhere in sight, yet I could feel her ymbryne energy somewhere about the first floor of the house.
I stopped before the children. Most of them had their heads hanging.
At first I didn't know what to say. I could only hope that the children were happy for me to be leaving to assume my place as a future ymbryne, but they were loosing someone who was dear to them. It was obvious they'd miss me as much as I would miss them.
"Come, come, Miss Stonington, my loop is being tended to by a couple of unknowing house maids- we must make haste and head for Blackpool," said Miss Avocet from her place in line.
I slowly walked to the center of the children. Many pairs of downcast eyes were laid upon me and I could do nothing but take in a deep breath. Upon my exhale, I opened my arms and said: "Come here, you beautiful children."
Claire was the first one. Her and Bronwyn wasted no time to wrap me in an embrace. Next came Horace, Enoch, Olive, Emma, Fiona, and the twins. They were immediately followed by Hugh, Jacob and Millard. A few tears escaped my eyes and I buried my nose into as many heads of hair as I could reach, taking in the smell of each child and cherishing it. We stayed a good three or four minutes just wrapped around each other. Never once had I felt so loved in my entire life- and never so sad, either.
Our embrace began to grow high in temperature and one-by-one the children backed off, each of them saying a personal farewell to me. After each child had delivered a declaration of how much they'd miss me, someone behind us cleared their throat and we all whirled to see Miss Peregrine standing on the porch, looking down on us.
"Children," she began. "I know you are all going to miss Minnette very much, but she will return for visits in the future, this I promise you. Now, if you'd be so kind, I'd like to have a moment alone with Minnette and Miss Avocet."
Quietly, sulkingly, the group of children obeyed and they slowly made their way around to the back of the house. Before disappearing around the corner, Emma stopped and smiled at me. She gave a small wave, a nod of her head, and stepped off out of sight.
Miss Peregrine approached me. It was very clear to me that her emotions were starting to get the best of her. Her green eyes were misty. She cupped my face in her hands and looked deeply into my eyes, as if trying to read my soul.
"You are destined for great things, Minnette," she said softly, so Miss Avocet wouldn't hear.
"Although I am much pleased- and beyond proud- to see you off to Ymbryne Academy, I want you to take care. Caul is lurking in the shadows, and belive me, he will return. I hate to have something horrendous happen with you all the way in Blackpool."
A sensation of worry flooded me then. It was radiating off of Miss Peregrine strongly and I bet even Miss Avocet could feel it.
"I'll come back, Miss Peregrine," I assured her. "If anything goes awry here, I will come back to you and the children." It was a promise I knew I would never break.
I had rallied the children and had fought wights off twice before, and, if so, I would hastily do it again.
"Write to me?" Miss Peregrine asked. She slid her hands from my face and took hold of my hands.
"Only everyday," I promised with a smile.
Then she pulled me into a tight, motherly embrace. Her energy shifted and began to subside from worrisome into a mellow level of relaxation. The shift calmed my sadness and I began to feel content again. The embrace lasted a few long moments, and then she stepped back from me, hands on my shoulders.
Miss Avocet approached us, a smile on her face.
"We must be going, Miss Stonington- our ship leaves within the hour."
Miss Peregrine released me and took another step back. She straightened her posture. All deep emotion faded from her face and she assumed her regular, regal stature.
I went to my luggage and took hold of the dolly and tipped it onto its wheels. I watched silently as Miss Avocet informed Miss Peregrine of her expectations that I would be a "wonderful student," and she went on to tell her that I was to be in a class of five other girls. I ran my eyes over every detail of the house one last time, and before I knew it, Miss Avocet was beckoning me to follow her down the path toward the cairn. I made sure that before I stepped into the cairn behind Miss Avocet, I halted and looked back toward the house.
Miss Peregrine stood at the end of the pathway, her eyes never leaving me. Oddly, and not even considering how unprofessional or out of bounds I was being, I kissed my palm and blew it at her. She smiled slightly, bowed her head, and refused to leave her spot as I hauled my luggage into the cairn.