A Family bond

Meet the shelbys

The car ride was painful. For Tommy anyway as he realise how serious Aaron had been about theas silent treatment. Thea sat in the middle back seat, Aaron to her right and Ada to the left, with Tommy driving and John in the passenger seat. John and Aaron spent the long journey taking away to each other with Ada chiming in every so often. She also tried to make conversation occasionally with Thea though the girl didn't so much as acknowledge her let alone speak with her.
Everyone else had slept on the journey apart from Thea and Tommy. Tommy glanced back at her in the mirror every so often expecting her to have dosed off but she just stared straight ahead not moving a muscle, Tommy wasn't even sure he'd seen her blink. They eventually found there way to watery lane where the rest of the shelbys were dying to meet them. Aaron carried their bag in seeing as they only had the one between them due to neither have many belongings, just some clothes and a couple books was all they had to bring. John went in the house first shouting for a family meeting in the betting den and even 10 year old Finn was aloud to join. Everyone else had taken a seat when Aaron, Thea and Tommy walked in, in that order. Aaron didn't hesitate making his way over to the empty seat next to John being able to easily jump into conversation. Thea on the other hand took her time looking around the room first. Her eyes landed on a large chalkboard covered in scribbles of numbers. She eyed the chalkboard not noticing pollys eyes on her from the table yet. Polly thought the girl was beautiful. She was, with her hip length golden hair, defined cheekbones and massive doe like blue eyes. Identical to her fathers as polly thought. She'd argue Thea was a little underweight and wasn't very tall but the girl had such a presence about her. Polly wasnt sure if it was her gypsy blood or if everyone noticed but there was something special about this girl, she just wasn't sure what yet. Pollys eyes moved over to Aaron. They boy was the spitting image of Tommy, right down to the haircut. He had the same blue eyes that matched his sisters and Tommys and polly knew without a doubt they were his children. For all Thea was small, Aaron made up for it. He was tall, well over 6 foot and built with broad shoulders and big muscles.
Tommy was still stood behind Thea who was yet to take a seat and move her eyes always from the numbers on the board "it's a betting board" tommy announced from behind her and as soon as he had made it known he'd noticed her looking at it she immediately stopped showing any interest in the board whatsoever, like a switch flipped and she acted as if she'd never even looked twice at it and proceeded to sit down with her back to the board. She sat next to Finn with Ada on her other side but still made no move to interact with either of them, much to Finns disappointment. Tommy made his way to the head of the table and cleared the throat gaining everyone's attention, apart from theas who continued to study the room. He went on to  introduce everyone including the twins but Thea wasn't listening, instead her eyes flicked around everyone in the room getting a brief read on them, to say she was uncomfortable was an understatement. Though you wouldn't be able to tell this by her face witch remind emotionless. She could hear Arthur trying to speak to her but she had no intention of having a conversation with so she made to move to let him know she'd heard him, her eyes were focused on polly whos were in turn focused on Thea. Both trying to get a feel for one another. When Thea thought of what a mother should be polly was almost exactly the description she imagined in her head though no one round the table had been introduced as her child. "What is she deaf?" He asked looking up to Tommy after Thea had been completely ignoring him "no" Tommy replied plainly lighting himself a cigarette "right..slow?" And this made Aaron head snap towards the man "the fuck did you just say?" He borderline shouted standing up for his chair quickly, making John stand up aswell gripping Aaron's arm trying to calm him down. Arthur didn't have a lot of patience left after the war and didn't take well to the boy shouting at him "and who the fuck are you shouting at boy?" He doubled Aaron's volume standing up aswell. This finally gained theas attention and she looked across to them eyes flicking back and forth between them as the shouted at one other. Her mouth lifted into a subtle smirk watching the men all argue with each other especially now that Tommy and John had got involved in the argument after trying to calm the other two down and had ended up just becoming a part of the argument themselves. Polly scoffed as she saw the young girl looking so amused at chaos floating around the room, seeming to be enjoying the argument she had a hand in starting. Polly slammed her hand down on the table "right! Enough, all of you" she said sternly, theas smirk slowly fading but her eyes stayed on her brother now and his moving to look at her. "Alright, out everyone, go settle in eh"  Tommy said running his hand down his face letting out a breath. Everyone started to move from the table going back to whatever it was they had being doing before the meeting, except Thea who didn't make any attempt to stand. Aaron noticed his sister as he was shuffling out of the room. They locked eyes and he raised an eye brow at her lack of movement. To which her only response was to flick the side of her nose causing aaron to nod and continue making his way out of the room with John after there silent conversation.
Polly and Thomas had gone to his office, Tommy had noticed Thea was yet to leave the table but as polly shut his office door his attention moved to his aunt.
"They're going to be a handful. He's got a temper that boy, would do anything for a sister and he'll get himself in bother because if it" Tommy just nodded already nervous enough about being a father not really appreciating his aunt adding to his stress. "And the girl. Why won't she speak?" She asked looking back out of the window toward Thea who was yet to move from the table. "I don't know poll. She doesn't trust us, that's what Aaron said. She won't speak until she's comfortable" "so how long do you think the silent treatment will last?" Polly asked turning back around to face Tommy "I'm not sure" he sighed running his hands down his face "until she knows we're not going to try and hurt her". Movement caught Tommys eye and he looked back out of the window in his office door to see Thea getting up from the table. She turned around to the chalkboard barely looking at it for a second before she picked up the rubber and a piece of chalk. She started to rub out a rewrite some of the numbers polly and Thomas both now watching from his office. "What the fuck is she doing, that took Arthur ages this morning to do!" Polly said as she moved for the door handle about to scold the girl for messing around. But before she could open the door Tommy put a hand on his aunts shoulder, his eyes not leaving thea as she continued to fill in numbers on the board. Polly looked at Tommy over her shoulder raising an eyebrow not sure why he stopped her "no" Tommy said causing pollys eyebrows to furrow in confusion at him "she's fixing it" he muttered mostly to himself but his aunt still heard, causing her to straighten out her back and let go of the door knob. "How? She doesn't even know the odds" she mumbled now too watching the girl work, "she worked out the pattern. She didn't need the odds" he almost whispered. To say the two adults were shocked would he an understatement. Neither of them had been able to ever work out the bets without knowing the odds before, they had never even noticed there was pattern to find, and they were the smartest in the family. Pollys mouth hung open as she watched the young girl fix all the wrong workings, truly in shock to what the had just witnessed. When Thea finished up the last number she let out a small sigh putting down the chalk and taking a step back to look over the whole board ones again. She let her eyes flick over all the numbers making sure she was right before just exiting the den, as if nothing happened leaving the two adults watching her from the office in shock. Tommys eyes followed her out the room watching as she gently shut the door behind her. "Holy fuck" polly laughed with her hand over her mouth knowing her feeling about the girl was right.