Tetra Pact

Chapter 12

As she got ready to leave the house for Evan's evening group, Erin slammed his bedroom door open and shouted, "What happened?"

"What are you talking about?" she yelled back down the hallway.

"You!" Erin said, slowly moving over to where she was standing, while Evan emerged from behind him. "Evan told me you were all happy and smiley just now. And you never are."

"That's -" she stopped mid-sentence, wondering what she was supposed to say to him. It already surprised her enough that Evan had noticed her joy a couple of hours ago, and even more so now that Erin had mentioned that she was never happy at home. Was it really that obvious that they could catch on so easily? "None of your business. Let's go, Evan," she said, swiftly steering the younger boy away and out of the door.

"Will Asbjørn be there?" he asked.

"What - why would you ask that?" she said, aware of how tense she'd become at the mention of the older guy's name. It was as if they knew exactly what she was happy about even without her breathing a word, even though she knew the question was completely unrelated.

"I wanna see him again, he's fun."

"You think he's fun?" she repeated, raising her eyebrows at him.

A deep voice came from behind her at the doorstep. "Who's fun?"

The three children turned to see their father at the door. His voice was familiar to Eden, as she did see him regularly at the shop, but she couldn't say the same for her brothers. Eirian Schofield was too busy running his barber chain and keeping up social pretenses to even come into contact with either of his sons throughout the week. Even when he was home for a bit, he didn't bother talking to them at all, most likely finding them a shame to be around. If Eden realised she was bad at hiding her expressions, her brothers were worse. The appalled expression on Erin said everything about this weird occurrence. They remained silent as their father glanced at them expectantly.

"What's wrong? You're heading for Evan's support group now, aren't you? Let's get going," he said. "I've gotten Adams to take a break; I'll bring you guys there today."

"Uh..." Eden began, not knowing what to say.

"Come on," he shooed them to his own car, which Eden realised they haven't sat in since they moved. They've only been in the chauffeur's car lately. "You're coming too, right?" he asked Erin, who was still standing there in shock.

"I don't, usually..." Erin started, but got cut off by their strangely enthusiastic father.

"It's alright, let's all go together. Where's your wheelchair?" he asked, the ignorance slapping all of them in the face. Even though he seemed somewhat off, it was definitely their father they were speaking to.

"He doesn't need one," Eden piped up, as Evan rushed over to assist his brother to the car.

She was sceptical, to say the least. Evan definitely didn't seem to think much of it, but she knew Erin wasn't completely comfortable with the current situation either. Because Erin was old enough to understand when their father decided he wanted nothing to do with his kids, and whatever was happening now either meant he was under a spell, or getting paid to do it.

They finally got into the car, with none of them in the front passenger seat. Their father hadn't made a big deal out of it, which was a relief, considering how out of character he already was that evening. After a few moments of awkward silence, with Erin zipping his lips tightly, their father said, "We'll go for dinner after this."

They kept quiet in their seats, still at a loss for words.

***

Asbjørn had reached Noble Minds before most of the volunteers and children, including Eden and Evan, who were usually pretty early. Just as he was pushing some of the boxes into place and reading the agenda for the night, he heard the door swing open. It was Eden, Evan, Erin, and...their father? Asbjørn wondered what special occasion it was that nearly all of their family had arrived at the centre.