That Peculiar Feeling | Mphfpc ~Enoch O'Connor~

Chapter Eleven

I came down after getting dressed and had my second breakfast with the other children. At ten o'clock, I found Miss Peregrine in her office of sorts.

"Good morning, Miss Peregrine."

"Hello Eden, now-" She stopped mid-sentence, and looked me up and down. "What are you wearing?"

"Uh, clothes?" It was the only response I could think of.

"Where is your dress?"

I looked down at my jeans and then it hit me. This was 1940, jeans probably weren't introduced until at least the 60's.

"Oh, these are jeans, we wear them in the future."

She narrowed her eyes slightly then continued to speak. "Speaking of the future, that is precisely what I wanted to discuss with you. Please sit."

After I did so, the headmistress adopted a more serious tone. "You are from the present, which means you may know what happens in this period of time. Although, for the safety of my wards, you must never discuss events, objects or advances that occur in the future. Do you understand?"

It took me a moment to process her request.

"So, for example, I can't tell them who wins the war?" I questioned.

"Definitely not."

"But why? It's not like it's going to hurt them." I questioned.

Ignoring my question, she said. "Eden, I know this is a big change for you, but you must promise me, you will never mention the future as long as you are here."

I nodded, she had the hypnotic look in her eyes again.

"I promise."

"Good, now lets see if we can uncover that mysterious peculiarity of yours. Shall we?"
                                                                   ...

I walked out of the headmistress' room, slightly disappointed. She insisted on doing a full physical check over, to look for any abnormalities. When there was none, she decided that the more I knew on 'peculiardom', the easier it would be for me to access my own peculiarity. So she directed me to a tall bookshelf, filled with dusty encyclopaedias and biographies of some famous peculiars.

She handed me three, thick leather-bound books and told me to take whatever else interested me. I looked through the dust covered books, searching for something even vaguely exciting. Then I found a small section labelled 'fiction'. Excitedly I looked through the few books that were there. Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, all great classics. I settled on Anne of Green Gables, I'd read it already, but every good book is worth reading more that once.

I carried my stack of books outside into the warm sun, it felt nice on my skin. I sat down under a tree, looking out over Millard and Hugh's game of football. Sitting cross legged, I contemplated what to read first. I conclude that 'Ymbrynes, A History' could wait, I opened Anne of Green Gables, losing myself in the tattered pages.

Enoch's P.O.V

Miss Peregrine told me to go outside and 'get some sunshine'. She never said what I should do, so I brought my homunculi, and something I'd been experimenting on. I'd been dabbling in clay recently, not sculptures, but bringing it to life. I'd make little clay men and animals and use my peculiarity to give them life, for a little while anyway.

I sat in the shade of a tree, moulding some clay in my hands. Then my mind wandered to this morning, I replayed Eden dancing in my mind's eye. "It's what friends do." She said it so, nonchalantly, like it was no big deal. Then when she came down for breakfast, she wasn't wearing a dress like the other girls. Even though Miss Peregrine looked at her like she'd killed someone, she didn't acknowledge it. I liked what she was wearing though, it was different.

I snapped back to reality when I heard a page being turned. It sounded like whoever it was, was right behind me. Before I could look around the tree to see who it was, I spotted one of my little clay men, wobbling round the tree. I didn't have the best control over them at the moment.

Just before I dived to grab it, I heard a voice.

"Hello little guy, who do you belong to?"

A hand then picked the little man up gently.

I recognised that voice, it was the same one who'd deemed me her 'friend' this morning.