Aunt Taylor's Library

Chapter 16 (Ellie)

(Ellie's POV)

"Come on," I said, glaring at my slow siblings. "We're going to be late!"

"You're going to be late. She doesn't care if Marie and I are there." Tyheim folded his arms and smiled triumphantly at me, as if he'd said something brilliant.

"Why do we even have to go?" Marie whined. I think she was still upset about moving. The past week we had moved away from our old neighborhood, to this one. In our old neighborhood, Marie's best friend Emma had been our next door neighbor. They went to different schools, so they weren't going to see each other as much, and Marie had cried all day. We didn't even move to another town, though.

I sighed. "You guys know I'm getting paid to help her clean up a bit. And I'm babysitting you two. So you guys have to come so I can do them both at the same time. You can just play on your phones the whole time for all I care."

"But Ms.Taylor probably won't like it if we play on our phones," Tyheim shot back. "She's an old lady. Old ladies hate phones."

"And when has any old lady dictated what you could and could not do?" Tyheim shrugged. "Exactly. And calling Ms. Taylor an old lady is rude."

Marie frowned. "But Dad said she was-"

"Now come on." I cut her off, and started off towards Ms. Taylor's house, without looking back to see if my siblings were following. I knew they would eventually.

As they catch up, I notice two blonde girls approaching. As they came nearer, I saw their grass-stained soccer uniforms and involuntarily slowed my pace. Kylie Prior and her sister. Lovely.

Kylie and Lily were eighth graders at my school, and Kylie and I had been fighting off and on since I was in fourth grade. Most recently, she had said I belonged with the Erudite, which I normally would take as a compliment, but she said it in such a disgusted way that of course I didn't. Yeah...that fight ended with us both in the principal's office.

Tyheim smiled mischievously at me. "Look, it's your girlfriend."

"I'm not a lesbian, you shank!" I rolled my eyes. "And even if I was, Kylie Prior is the last person on earth that I would ever think about dating."

Marie giggled. "You'd date me before Kylie? Ew..."

"Just...both of you shut up."

Kylie made a point of stopping her and Lily's conversation and glaring at me as we walked past them, and I made a point at looking disgusted. Lily just sighed and tugged Kylie along. They must have been at Ms. Taylor's house. I was so glad they had left before we got there.

As we trudged up to the front door, Tyheim shot past me to use the lion's head door knocker on Ms. Taylor's door. It was brass, I think, and was a very detailed lion's head, holding a loop of metal in its mouth, which Tyheim pounded furiously.

Ms. Taylor opened the door, a scowl on her face. "What is it now? You'll bring the house down with all that racket!" She bent over and picked up a rolled up newspaper next to the door, then smacked Tyheim on the side of the head with it.

"Ow!" Tyheim rubbed the side of his head.

"There's more where that came from if you don't learn to be quiet. What you need is a good book."

"Sla hem nog eens," Marie said, smiling mischievously.

Ms. Taylor frowned at her. "Nee, niet nu." I had no idea what my sister or Ms. Taylor just said (I think it was Dutch...), and it was a bit unsettling. Tyheim glanced at me uneasily.