Play Ball

"Concentrate, Number Seven," Reginald loomed above her, or though perhaps that was simply how he filled a room, glaring at her through his monocular, grey-blue eyes piecing and full of barely controlled annoyance and impatience, "You will archive nothing if you refuse to even try to harness your abilities".

Willa gritted her teeth and tasted iron on her tongue, eyes slightly squinted as she glared up at the wiry man, her so called 'Guardian,' who stood before her. Once a week, all the kids, but for Vanya, would have a one-on-one session with dear old Reggie, and it was those sessions that Willa was positive all of the kids hated. She sometimes saw Luther leaving the room with a positively near pained frown on his features, other times it was Diego who looked as if he was ready to smash something if anyone dared speak to him until he had time to cool off from whatever had happened during his session with Reginald. Allison normally seemed more guarded, expression closed off, while Klaus and Ben both usually looked utterly miserable after their time. The only one in the house who remotely seemed slightly happy after his one-on-one training was Five, who even seemed haughtier than normal. Five was a pretty special case, though. Even if his time had sucked, he still would probably plaster his smug smirk, just to try and annoy them all.

She never asked the other kids what happened during their private tutoring seasons, and they never asked her, but she imagined it was nothing overly fun, except for perhaps whatever Five and Reggie got up to. She just felt badly for the other kids, because if they had to endure what she had to during her sessions, she could fully understand why they either looked miserable or furious once wrapping up their session.

"I am trying," she sniffed, and almost coughed on the blood that she felt running down the back of her throat, "Sir," she added, slightly stiffly, upon seeing how his eyes narrowed on her sharply.

Willa dropped her eyes from his to glare at the shinny tips of her lace-up shoes...they were new, having grown out of her old pair and she had yet to manage to scuff them up to badly, though she knew it wouldn't take her long and it would only be another thing for Reggie to fault her in. She sniffed more blood and somehow didn't gag against the disgusting taste on the back of her tongue and in her throat, perhaps simply so used to her own blood that she was immune to it by now. She had to admit, after a full year of training, she had at least managed to no longer suffer from a bloody nose every training session, now it usually took a fair bit of pushing before it would start. She took that to mean that she was getting stronger, developing the stamina for using her powers that Reginald had declared during their first one-on-one training that she was sorely lacking in.

"You will need to develop the stamina to be able to endure using your abilities sufficiently before we can even begin trying to develop them into being functional for any cause! A decade of neglect and improper care has caused you to be nearly disabled by your own abilities! This will not do. You will have to work twice has hard as any of the other children, Number Seven..."

The slight against her mother being somehow neglectful hadn't gone remiss even to Willa's young mind, but there was something about Reginald that made you keep your mouth shut and endure silently, seething, perhaps, beneath the surface, but not refuting anything he said. Perhaps it was the fact that he literally held her entire life and future in his hands, but it had still burned her and his words during that first season lingered in the back of her mind. Her Ma hadn't neglected her, she hadn't understood her powers, hadn't known that forcing Willa to try and keep them hidden might cause more harm then good to her, it wasn't Ma's fault. But even though Reggie's words might have been poorly worded, he seemed to have been right about one thing: Stamina was the key.

"You are not trying hard enough," Reginald said stiffly, eye pinning to her. He stood before the leather-bound armchair that she sat in, placed in the middle of his office, facing his ornate desk, while he held a brown leather notebook in his hands and a fountain pen. It was briefly forgotten, however, for lecturing her, "Do you have any comprehension as to what you are even attempting to do, Number Seven?"

Willa grasped the arms of the chair, making the leather squeak, trying desperately not to say something that would earn her likely a month's worth of punishment. Klaus and Ben were made to wash the dishes for three weeks after Reggie had caught them mimicking him behind his back the other day, while Diego had been made to write a five-thousand-word essay about why defacing the library table with his knife was not acceptable. She had somehow managed to avoid getting punished for anything, after twelve months living under this roof, but these one-on-one session tested her temper. It was just her luck that she only had to endure them once a week.

"No, sir," she bit out, slightly bitterly, "I don't understand. I thought I was supposed to be learning how to channel my powers so that I can leave my body without falling unconscious?"

"That..." he peered down his long, hooky nose at her, "...is evidently still far to advanced for you, Number Seven," he narrowed his eyes coolly on her and sighed, rather irritably, "It seems that I will have to revise the study program for you..."

Well, she had thought so, too, personally, but then again sometimes she did manage to do stuff that seemed to even surprise Reggie, like the time she had bounced Diego's consciousness out of his body. She could now do it easily, just needing to touch someone's skin and, bang, they were out of their body. The other kids all said it didn't hurt, but it was super freaky to look down and see your own body, or though oddly enough Klaus was the one who found it to be the most uncomfortable. He had confessed it reminded him way too much of what it was like to see ghosts, though he'd been quick to reassure Willa that it was still kind of cool. But ever since then, she hadn't really shown anything cool, nothing that would work in a fight, anyways. Bouncing someone's consciousness out of their physical body was a good surprise attack or for taking a baddie out of play, but Willa still thought it was kind of lame, as far as powers went.

"You have the ability to project yours and others consciousness from their physical form," he continued, rather impatiently, scowling at her with those dead, cold, beady eyes of his that still reminded her frighteningly of a shark, "This ability, theoretically, comes with many different possibilities, Number Seven. With this ability, you may be able to walk unseen whoever your may chose, you can potentially walk through others dreams and project dreams or hallucinations onto others, you may be able to temporally or even permanently banish individuals consciousness to the Astral Plane at your will...the possible application for your ability are vast, Number Seven, vast and still unknown, but you will never archive any of that or reach your full potential unless you apply yourself to this task!"

Willa swallowed, hard, his words far from new to her. She had heard them all before, she understood that she seemingly had more than just the ability to project herself or others from their bodies, she had even attempted to dream walk several times and managed to find herself briefly finding herself in Luther's dream...that had been damn awkward the next day over breakfast, when she had to look the boy in the eye, knowing he had been dreaming about dancing with Allison. After that...well, it seemed like a massive invasion of privacy to Willa, there seemed like there was some pretty big ethical and moral issues with that sort of thing, so she had purposely failed every time she had attempted to do it again for Reggie, much to the old man's annoyance. But it had underlined the idea that perhaps she did have more power and ability then she had known, but that, in itself, was terrifying. She didn't want to be powerful; she just wanted to be normal, ordinary. Like Meg, like Vanya.

"I'll...I'll try again, sir," she found herself saying, softly, not truly meaning it, not really. She kept her eyes downcast, still tasting the blood in her mouth, "May I try again?"

...

Her lesson with Hargreeves Senor lasted for another two hours and by the end; she left with a tissue stuck against her nose as the blood ran freely from her nose, and a slightly sickly feeling in her stomach, likely from swallowing the blood that had dripped down the back of her throat. Her first stop was the bathroom upstairs, where she made quick work of cleaning up her face, sticking some fresh paper up her nose. There was one good thing to the blood noses, once she stopped using her powers the bleeding clotted up quickly, and by the time she had splashed water over her face and returned to her bedroom to change out of her blood-stained vest and white shirt for a clean pair, the bleeding had stopped. She dug out some dry biscuits from her desk drawer and chewed them up, hoping to soak up some of the blood in her stomach. She then collapsed, face first, into onto her bed and hugged her pillows, her pillowcases a lovely sunshine yellow shade and smelling fresh.

Grace must have cleaned up while she was out. Usually, it was their job to do that thing, keep their rooms tidy enough that the vacuum could get through; otherwise Grace would simply vacuum what she could, not once complaining, mind. But sometimes she would also do their sheets for them, even though it was supposed to be their job...Willa hugged her pillow a little tighter and sighed, breathe muffled into the ironed materiel. Grace still wasn't Ma, but she did mother Willa like she was one of her own kids, like she was Diego or Allison.

"Will!"

Willa groaned very slightly and buried her head a little deeper into her pillow at the sound of her door very nearly bouncing off the wall behind it, while Allison seemed to practically fly into the space, seemingly unbothered by the fact the one should probably knock first. No one in this house had any respect for privacy or normal manners, though, Klaus walked around shirtless if he could, while Five seemed to delight in blinking around the house and scaring everyone, while, old Reggie didn't seem to have any ethical issues with the idea of encouraging Willa to dream walk through his own kids dreams. The Hargreeves's were something else.

"Allison," she muffled into her pillow, "I literally just got back from training with your dad, can't I have five minutes to just...relax?"

"What do you know about soccer?"

Willa sighed heavily and turned her head to the side, neck on an uncomfortable angle, still lying on her stomach. She fixed Allison with a slightly squinted frown.

"You mean football?"

Allison paused and gave her a slightly bemused stare, looking rather taken aback...in fact, she looked really rather ruffled for Allison. Normally, Allison was the most put together out of all of them, her uniform was always freshly ironed and sat just so on her slim frame, while her tight, natural curls were always neatly brushed or either held back in a ponytail at the base of her neck or held off her face with a grey fabric hair band. But today she looked like she had been running, her tie was missing and her collar stuck up slightly at the back, like she had hurriedly removed her tie in a rush, while her blazer sat croaked on one shoulder and there was even some mud splattered over her shoes and socks. It was the mud that grabbed Willa's attention, her eyes zeroing in on the mud...because there was no mud around the cobbled courtyard.

"Football, soccer, whatever," Allison shook her head, moving to drop onto the end of her bed, causing the mattress to dip beneath her weight. She gave her an oddly urgent look and Willa, rather alarmed now, moved to roll onto her back, pushing herself a little awkwardly up against her pillows by her elbows, frowning at the other girl, "Look," she gave her a level stare, looking oddly very serious, "Do you know how to play soccer?"

"I'm Welsh, Allison, of course I do".

"Thank God," she sighed in relief, briefly closing her yes, "Finally, someone not useless around here..."

Willa blinked, "What...?" she trailed off, when she was interrupted by a rather indignant huff.

"Oi!" both girl's head snapped up to find Luther standing in the doorway, looking oddly rather offended and pouty, which was, frankly, quite hilarious to see on the tall, broad-shouldered boy who was already starting to fill out, even though they hadn't even technically hit puberty yet. He pointed at Allison, frowning, "I tried to help! It's not my fault I never played soccer before; dad never let me go to summer camp, did he?"

"It's doesn't matter now, Luther," Allison rolled her eyes, settling herself even more comfortably on the bed, moving to lean back against the wall that the bed was sitting against, her muddy shoes just barley shy of scraping and ruining the clean bright yellow duvet cover. She smiled brightly and reached out to absently pat Willa's bare knee, oblivious to the way that Willa was eyeing her shoes with a wary frown, "I've got Willa to help me now. She actually knows this sort of stuff".

"I'm not exactly an expert..." Willa said slowly, pulling her gaze off the muddy shoes with a slight thinning of her lips to eye Allison, sparing her a rather confused frown.

That was when another invader decided to stroll right into her bedroom. It was turning into a bloody train station in here.

"What's with the family meeting?" Klaus asked as he came waltzing into the open doorway, his large headphones dangling around his neck, while his bulky Walkman was pinned to the waistband of his shorts. He had forgone or simply forgotten his blazer and vest entirely, his white shirt partly un-tucked from his shorts. He arched an eyebrow and absently patted Luther's shoulder, gliding deeper into the room, until he came to also drop onto the end of Willa's bed without so much as a pause...

"Jesus, Klaus!" Allison huffed at him, annoyed, as he almost squished her against the wooden end of the bed and his body. She slapped at his side, trying to shove him away, "Go away, we're trying to talk about something private here..."

Klaus didn't seem to get the cue, merely battering her hands right back...Willa watched from her position still against her pillows, eyebrows rising in a mixture of disbelief and amusement. It was like watching kids mock fighting one another, slapping one another half-heartedly, or though Allison looked more annoyed than anything...her annoyance seemed to lessen the longer the little bickering squabble went on, until she managed to finally grab a hold of Klaus's right hand, getting him right in his pressure point in the webbing of his thumb and palm.

"Ow, ow, ow! Okay, I get it, I get it! Let go, Allison...!"

Willa sighed heavily as her bed shook under the pairs fighting, while Luther stood by and watched, making little move to intervene or leave, for that matter. She reached up and rubbed her forehead, ignoring how her legs were now basically trapped behind Klaus's back.

"What's going...?" she began to ask again, full of wariness and exasperation...

...Only for Diego to suddenly stick his head around the doorframe of her room, eyebrows raised with interest, which only rose higher at the sight of them basically all piled on the single bed, Luther standing by and observing silently. The stockier, dark-haired boy inched into the bedroom and crossed his arms over his chest, his comic book seemingly forgotten in his hand.

"Is this about the soccer thing?" he asked curiously, directing his attention to Allison...because apparently this bedroom was now an extension of Allison's bedroom, Willa supposed.

"Wait..." Luther frowned and rounded on the other boy, narrowing his eyes on him, "You know about that?"

He scoffed slightly and shot him a flat look, "Allison asked me about it, Number One," he replied, slightly stiffly and pointedly, but there was a hint of almost mocking in his dark eyes.

Luther scowled very slightly and shot Allison a vaguely hurt look, as if she had somehow betrayed him by also apparently going to Diego for help with her issue...whatever the hell that issues was supposed to be, and how it all related back to soccer. Willa merely sighed heavily and looked flatly between the boys, Luther swiftly shooting Diego a rather annoyed glare, while the other boy smiled thinly back at him. Those two...either at one another's throats or best friends, never anything in-between. Today seemed to be a day of hating one another for seemingly no reason. Willa just wished they didn't have to do it in her bedroom.

"Diego likes sport," Allison said with a slightly placating look to Luther, her expression a mixture of guilt and annoyance, "I figured if anyone might know about soccer it would be him..."

"Don't forget me," Klaus held up his hand, smiling brightly. He gave a little bounce on the bed, rocking the whole thing...Willa shook her head in despair and brought her hands up to cover her face.

Luther and Diego turned to stare at him in disbelief.

"You asked Klaus?" Diego blinked, seemingly rather shocked by that.

"I was desperate".

"Well..." Five came striding calmly into the bedroom, hands stuck in his pockets and a rather haughty look on his features, pinning Allison with a slightly sarcastic smirk, "Doesn't that just make a brother feel really good about themselves," he stopped between Luther and Diego, and grimaced slightly, giving Allison a scowl, "Just tell me you asked me before that idiot..." he jutted his chin pointedly towards Klaus.

"Hey!"

"Why am I even here?" Willa muttered to herself, squinting her eyes absently at her bedroom wall, shaking her head slowly in bewilderment, "I might as well be a stuffed teddy bear or a lamp..."

That was when Ben arrived, shoulders slightly hunched and a curious expression on his rounded features. He, at least, lightly knocked on the open door and pulled all of their gazes to him. He smiled a little faintly and stepped slowly into the room.

"Still trying to figure out the soccer thing, Allison?" he asked lightly, and almost sympathetically.

Luther and Diego huffed in unison, the pair throwing accusing and offended looks back towards Allison, who held up her hands hastily in surrender and grimaced slightly. Five merely arched a thick, dark eyebrow and moved to lean casually against the edge of Willa's desk, crossing his ankles ahead of himself, while Klaus seemed happy to just watch everything unfold and wiggle his sock covered feet to a tune only he could hear inside his head. Willa scoffed and rolled her eyes, because of course it seemed that even Ben knew about whatever the hell was going on, even though Allison had made it seem like it was a private thing. What next, was Reggie going to pop up?

"Hey," a softer, slightly timid voice came from the door, and Willa looked around Allison and Klaus to see that Vanya had finally arrived, too, though she seemed very slightly confused, frowning vaguely as she looked at all of her siblings gathered in Willa's bedroom. She shifted slightly awkwardly in the doorway, where Ben had stepped aside to let her stand comfortably, her brown eyes darting swiftly around the room, taking them all in...She smiled a little warily, "What did I miss?"

Willa instantly felt her chest give a little twinge of sadness, because it seemed that while Allison had run around the house talking to her brothers, Vanya had been missed out. But yet, even though Willa wasn't even Allison's sister and she might have come to her last, Allison had come to her, eventually. Vanya didn't know that, not yet, but it would take her barely a second for that realisation to likely hit her, too, when she discovered that everyone, even Klaus, knew. Willa licked her lips and frowned uneasily, a sick sense of almost shame washing over her, even though she had literally nothing to do with any of this...Allison was to blame, she should feel guilty...and yet, it seemed like Willa was the only one who really saw or realised how painful this would be to Vanya, being seemingly left out, like always, now by even her own siblings. No one else in the room seemed to look at Vanya apologetically; no one else looked guilty or sheepish.

Reginald Hargreeves had seriously messed up his own kids.

"Allison rumoured herself onto a girls soccer team," Diego announced, rather loudly, smiling slightly teasingly at Allison.

Allison instantly glared at him, annoyed and seemingly rather embarrassed, while Willa's eyes widened, and Vanya blinked.

"Oh," Vanya said slowly, very slightly blankly.

"Excuse me?" Willa turned sharply to stare at Allison, bewildered, for so, so many reasons. How did Allison even get access to a girl's soccer team? They couldn't leave the Academy grounds; never mind why would she even want to? How did this even happen?

"It looked like fun!" she defended herself hastily, "And...normal," she sighed slightly, voice growing a little more sad as she glanced away. Willa frowned sympathetically, because that, at least, she could totally get, even though the details were still very lost on her.

"Yeah, great idea, Allison," Five scoffed, giving his sister a flat look from the opposite side of the room, still leaning casually against Willa's desk, right in front of her glowing lava lamp, "You just forgot one thing, you don't know how to play soccer, and none of the rest of us know, either".

"Willa knows, though. She can teach me the rules".

Willa shifted slightly on her bed, or as much as she could with Klaus basically leaning back against her legs like they were pillows, suddenly feeling rather under the spotlight as the room all turned to look at her. Five arched an eyebrow and seemed oddly amused, peering dubiously at Willa, as if he very seriously doubted Allison's idea that Willa could help her, while Luther frowned vaguely and seemed very slightly just as uncertain, though he seemed a little more polite about it...

"You know how to play soccer?" Diego eyed Willa in slight disbelief, voice full of slight mocking and doubt.

Willa bristled instantly and frowned at him darkly, eyes narrowing into an offended glare. She moved to try and wriggle herself free from beneath Klaus, who merely gave her a rather blank stare as she tried, very hard, not to accidently kick him in her efforts to extract herself from his back. It was all rather undignified, she imagined, but she didn't care, she was annoyed and she felt badly for Vanya, who had grown increasingly stony faced since her siblings had started talking again, not to mention the fact that she was just a little bit over anyone with the last name Hargreeves seeming to doubt and question her capabilities right now...She managed to free herself and pull herself up from her bed, straightening her skirt around her waist, before placing her hands on her hips. She glared at Diego firmly.

"Yes," she snapped very slightly, "I do. And..." she straightened herself slightly more, her lips curving into a confident smirk, "I can teach the rest of you, too. In fact..." her eyes glinted challengingly, "I insist".

The room all stared at her with varying looks of concern, apprehension, and mocking...

"Damn," Klaus whispered to Allison, though his voice was still easily heard through the room, gaping very slightly at Willa, "Why does she look just like dad right now?"

...

"Okay, listen up!" Willa called loudly, whistling an ear-piercing whistle through her pursed lips. Everyone stopped their own little chattering, Klaus, dramatic as ever, flinched like a bomb had gone off, but they all turned to stare at her, which was rather the point. She stood before them all with a basketball held against her hip, while she had swapped her black buckle-up shoes for her training runners, and glared at them with steely eyes, "Football or soccer as you lot likely knows it as, is a no contact sport! The ball..." she used both hands to lift the basketball up high for them all to see, before bending down to drop it on the ground at her feet. She lifted her right foot to rest on top of it, "...is not to be touched by hands, only kicked, unless it's a foul and being thrown in, but that's a whole other story..."

A light splatter of rain fell over their little group as they stood on the rooftop garden of the Academy, a place that was very rarely ever used, but Willa imagined was perhaps quite handsome. There was still remnants of what was once possibly a lovely lawn area that, even now when it was more mud and weeds then grass, would serve as a decent pitch. An old, gloomy greenhouse sat off to the side of the rooftop, the glass murky from years of disuse and any plants that might have once bloomed within it, had seemingly been left to largely rot away, no one seeming to have bothered cleaning it out, either. And then there was the large observatory, which was actually still used and functional, which was positioned towards the back side of the roof from the street side. Luther sometimes used it late at night, Willa knew, sometimes Reggie would have them take classes in there when it came to astronomy or physics, but for the most part this was just another part of the Academy that had been left largely disused and forgotten. It seemed a shame to her, since it could have been quite nice, but she somehow couldn't picture Hargreeves Senor pottering away in the garden.

"Seven players to a team, normally, but we're gonna have to make do today, so I guess we'll have to split into teams of four and..."

"Number Three, Two, and Five, are on my term," Luther cut in swiftly, his blonde hair already starting to stick to his forehead in the light drizzle, not that he seemed to notice. He marched forward to where Willa stood and spun around to face the remaining kids, Vanya, Klaus, and Ben, sparing Willa a glance, "Six, Four, and Eight, you can be on Seven's team..."

Willa stared at him in bewilderment, "What are you doing?" she frowned, crossing her arms across her chest slightly irritably, already well knowing what the hell Luther was doing and, honestly, she wasn't impressed.

Allison had come to her for help and this was something she could help with. Luther wasn't going to bloody well take over that.

"I'm Number One," he puffed out his chest proudly, "Obviously, I'm going to..."

"Shut up and listen, yes," she interrupted him with a warning narrowing of her eyes, uncrossing her arms to stab a finger just shy of touching his broad chest...he blinked at her, blue eyes widening slightly in shock. She lifted her chin slightly higher, almost daringly, ignoring the low 'Ooh,' that Klaus gave from a few feet away, "You're not Number One here, Luther, you're not even the ref, I am," she pointed to her chest and leaned slightly towards him, glaring at him firmly, while he gaped at her in disbelief. She plastid him with a thin, sarcastic smile and straightened, "Now, if you want to be Captain of your team, have at it, but I'm the one making the final call here".

Silence briefly washed over the rooftop, broken by the distant sound of an ambulance siren and a car horn, while the rain dampened their clothing and hair. Willa didn't back down, she wasn't going to back down over this one, she kept up the whole silly number ranking thing only because she had to when old Reggie was around, but she'd be damned if she was going to use it when she didn't have to, let alone actually follow it. Luther was the same age as she was, he might be taller and broader, and way stronger, but he was still just a ten-year-old kid, same as her, he was no better or different, even if he was supposedly meant to be their 'Leader,' whatever that even meant, anyway. The way she saw it, they were all equals, including Vanya, she didn't care about powers or the rest of that nonsense, they were all ten, they were all forced to live under this roof, and they all had their future held in the ice-cold clutches of Reginald Hagreeves. They were all the same. It was time that Luther, especially, got a little taste of medicine and felt what it was like to not be the leader.

And, quite frankly, Willa was sick of the whole toxic superiority complex that seemed to have been enforced into all of the Hargreeves kids heads since basically birth.

"I'll be damned," Diego whistled softly, eyes wide and a delighted grin lifting his lips, "Who knew Will had it in her?"

"I wish we had popcorn right now," Ben said quietly, eyes darting between the still rather stunned looking Luther and Willa, who still glared slightly challengingly at the fair-haired boy before her.

"Why didn't we do this before?" Klaus lightly whacked Ben's upper arm, even though he was at least a good two inches taller than the other boy, staring in amazement at Luther and Willa before him, "This is amazing! I love soccer!"

Even Five looked oddly amused by everything, which said a lot, while Vanya looked as if she didn't know if she should simply gape in disbelief or laugh.

"Luther," Allison cut in, slightly impatiently. Her voice instantly seemed to break through Luther's shock, blinking rapidly as he dragged his gaze off Willa to look over to the girl, who was frowning at him slightly, "I asked Will to help me, so let her do it, would you?" she huffed, her tone growing rather annoyed.

He stared at her as if she had just deeply betrayed him, "But, Allison..."

"Will's teaching us how to do this properly, and I need to know, so just shut up and do as she says!"

Willa smirked very slightly and arched an eyebrow at Luther, who shot her a slightly sulky glare, though it lacked any real heat to it, moving to slump back over to where he had stood before, shoulders hunched and a scowl marking his feature. Luther was a big teddy bear, really, even when he was annoyed, unless it was something relating to his dad, he was basically just a pushover, and if Allison got involved...well, it was pretty obvious that, even though it was super weird, Luther had a crush on Allison. Personally, Willa thought that was kind of disgusting, they had been raised and treated like siblings, after all, so it made zero sense to her how that had even happened, but she wasn't going to be the one to try and make sense of that mess. She might need to bring it up to her future therapist, one day, but for now she was going to ignore it like the other kids all seemed to choose to and hope to God that she didn't end up walking in on anything when puberty set in.

"Okay," she clapped her hands and, smiling brightly, looking back around the gathered kids, "Football! Here's the basic rules..."

...

Willa had tried her hardest to try and find a soccer ball, but the closest she had gotten was a basketball that she had found in a corner of the training room, slightly dusty and a little flat, but she figured the flatness might help to lessen the blow if someone (Luther...) kicked the ball a little too hard. it made things a little harder as they began playing, Luther with his own little team, and yes, Willa had given in and allowed him to pick his own players, quite frankly just because she was rather sick of seeing the sulky expression on his face while she had been running them through the correct way to kick. She hadn't failed to notice that Luther had picked the strongest and best fighters out of them all, but she had one thing on her side...she was good at soccer, even if the kids didn't know that yet.

Boy, did they get a shock when they started playing for real. She hadn't been athletic before the Academy, her first months of training seasons where she had basically left every class almost vomiting, was proof of that, but she and Meg had played around with a soccer ball back in Wales in Willa's back garden, their weekly PE classes had involved playing a lot of soccer during the winter months, and while Willa was far from a star player at it, she was decent and had the advantage over the Hargreeves siblings of actually having experience playing the game.

It was raining fairly heavily by the time they get into the groove of the game, everyone seemed shocked to discover that Vanya was actually pretty swift on her feet, managing to dodge and dive even Five a couple of times on the makeshift pitch, while Ben proved to have a real talent for kicking goals, another shock to them all. Of course, Luther's team did brilliantly, even though Willa did have to keep reminding Five and Diego that there was no tackling allowed, they still managed to score two goals against their side...it probably would have been better if they had enough players to have someone act properly as goalie, but they were making do and, for once, no one was bickering, no one was throwing a fit about being 'the Leader' or worrying about what daddy would say. They were just kids, running through the rain, mud spluttered and wet to their chilled flesh, laughing and good naturally teasing one another.

Willa couldn't remember a time at the school that she had laughed harder, couldn't remember feeling this free or childish or normal since before she had left Wales, but here she was. Her ginger locks wild and sticking to her jawline and back of her neck from where little strands had escaped from her ponytail, her headband long since tossed aside. Mud and grass stains marked her knees from where she had taken a tumble early in the game trying to capture the ball from Five, while she fully expected that her wool skirt and vest likely made her stink of wet dog, but she didn't care! None of them cared.

Nothing good or free could last at the Umbrella Academy, though, she should have known that. It was a miracle that no one had noticed their absence to begin with, how that had happened was still a mystery to her even as she grew older, but she suspected that Grace and Pogo must have covered for them. It seemed like they did that a lot, or how else could they have gotten away with so much that they did as they became older? But whatever had allowed them a brief moment of being just kids, was eventually brought to an abrupt end when Reginald came upon them.

"What is the meaning of this, children?" his voice broke through even the pouring rain and the sound of the old basketball bouncing off a wheelbarrow that Diego had dragged over to act as a goal.

A bucket of ice water would have been less effective in causing them all too instantly while around, blinking rain from their eyes, smiles briefly freezing before disappearing near instantly. He stood by the edge of their makeshift pitch, draped in a dark grey coat and with a large black umbrella held over his head, shark-like eyes wide and full of barely restrained anger, taking them all in absolute disbelief, as if the fact that they had been acting like children was simply too much for him to believe. Willa swallowed, hard, and eyed the old man warily, her heart dropping straight through the roof of the Academy like a stone.

"We were just playing soccer, Father," Luther spoke first, even though he looked like the most stricken of them all to have been caught, eyes wide and cheeks turning a deep crimson beneath the streaks of mud that stained his flesh. He swallowed, visibly, "We didn't realise how late it had gotten..."

"Soccer?" the old man repeated, nostrils flaring in outrage, his voice cutting through the air like a knife, "Soccer? Whatever has gotten into you all? This foolishness will stop immediately, I will not allow it!"

"It was just a quick game, Father," Allison said hastily, managing to look far less ruffled and guilty then the rest of her siblings, though she still looked rather admonished.

"There is no time for games at the Umbrella Academy, Number Three!"

Willa cringed as she saw Allison grimace and duck her head very slightly, while Vanya positively flinched, looking horrified. Klaus ad Ben looked anxious, while Five, for all of his efforts to come off as being perfectly unbothered, was frowning warily and shifting his feet awkwardly on the muddy ground. Diego looked furious, though Willa knew it was aimed towards himself right now, perhaps even towards her, for having allowed himself to be caught up in all of this mess, while Luther stared at his father like a child having his favourite toy torn from his arms, full of near devastation...Willa squeezed her eyes shut, stomach rolling with nausea. Did no one else get how messed up growing up like this was? Parents weren't supposed to get angry at kids for being kids, they weren't supposed to make their kids react like this, it was...it was just so, so awful.

It reminded her of Meg and her heart broke.

"It was my idea," she said, because she was scared the kids might be punished, and she didn't want that. She opened her eyes and blinked the rain from her lashes, taking a firm step forward, looking directly at Hargreeves Senor, "Sir, this was my fault. I thought it would be okay to teach everyone football, 'cos we're supposed to be training to be a team and we're always excising, I just thought this would count towards helping us train".

The lies rolled off her tongue with shocking ease, she met the old man's stony glare without blinking or lowering her gaze, keeping her expression carefully guarded and serious, while she gripped the edge of her sodden skirt between her fingers, twisting it anxiously. No one would try and protect her, living in such a toxic house like that with a man like Reginald meant that loyalty only stretched so far, and Willa was under no illusion to imagine that she even came close to that. She was an outsider, not a Hargreeves, and if the Hagreeves kids wouldn't even speak up to protect their own sibling, there was no way they would do it for her. She was kind of okay with that.

"Number Seven," he rounded on her, easily looming over her, his expression morphing into a narrowed eyed frown. She simply looked back at him, trying not to look away, not to show weakness, "I should have known..." he peered at her closely, "Tell me, Number Seven, what made you imagine that you should be the one to determine what you learn and how?"

It was a trick question, one that she could never answer correctly.

"Nothing, sir," she said rigidly, almost robotically.

He narrowed his eyes on her and she lowered her gaze, then, squeezing the edge of her skirt tightly. When he spoke, his voice was measured.

"Indeed," he sniffed haughtily, "This behaviour will not be tolerated from anyone..." his gaze swiftly swept his children, then, though Willa kept her gaze adverted on the soaked toes of her trainers, "You will all go downstairs immediately and dry yourselves off. You will then meet me in the training rooms for your approved training..."

The other kids all began to instantly shuffle away, towards the door of the roof, and Willa could see Allison and Vanya giving her glances as they went, something vaguely like sympathy and apology in their eyes, before they also left. Willa stayed in her spot, only daring to glance up at Hargreeves Senor when the last kid was at the door.

"This childishness is unacceptable at this Academy," he told her coolly, rain pattering from his umbrella, "I warned you that allowances would not be made for you".

"Yes, sir".

"You will spend the next two weeks doing the laundry, Number Seven, without Grace's help. Perhaps you should take the time while ironing to consider the entitlement and arrogance of your actions today".

Willa nodded, for a lack of anything else to say, and kept her expression carefully guarded...but inside she only felt relief, relief that she had managed to somehow save the other kids from being punished. Sure, she might have been the one to take the full fall, even though she had only been trying to help Allison, but she would take it, if only it meant protecting her friends, just a little bit.

Five's thoughts, watching Willa stand up to Luther, probably: This one is precious and needs protecting at all costs.

Luther's thoughts: Can't we send this one back to Wales?

I'm joking...kind of, mostly. Five doesn't even really see Willa like that yet, he's only ten, and I kind of see Luther being closer to looking at a girl in any romantic contexts then any of the boys are yet. Puberty hasn't hit yet...but God, it's right around the corner for everyone and that's gonna be fun. Also, I think Luther is more shocked than anything that it's Willa who is standing up to him, and in front of his siblings. I feel like he'd expect that from Diego or Five, but Willa? She's been at the Academy for almost a year now, but I feel like she's probably not had that much to do with Luther still, I mean, Reggie basically designed the school in a way that would have made it hard for the kids to really socialise that much (Obviously, they did manage to and weirdly enough, managed to also get into a lot of trouble, even though they were under constant surveillance), so Willa and Luther haven't spent that much time getting to know each other. Plus, Willa's pretty unassuming to look at, she's that red headed girl that is friends with Vanya and sounds like she's singing when she speaks, who would expect her to stand up to Luther, tall, broad shouldered, so called 'Leader' Hagreeves?

I also found Allison's little soccer thing interesting, it caught my attention when I first watched the show and I knew I had to include it in this story. I also felt like it would be a good chance to underline how different the Hargreeves kids are growing up, compared to Willa, compared to normal kids, and just really try and drive home, I guess, just how toxic growing up for them it was. Willa can see it because she knows what it's like to grow up loved and adored, but she's also seen a glimpse from Meg of what it's like to be abused and scared of a parent, and I feel like that's where a lot of her protectiveness and desire to want to help the Hagreeves kids comes from. I kind of wanted that to be the underlying factor of this chapter, hopefully it came through.