Stay...Calm

Chapter 6

"Sorry I grabbed you by the ankle and you screamed like a baby,"Anais apologized when they were drying off.

"Sorry I fell on you after you scared me along with a bunch of other people," Thelma apologized in response.

Victorine rubbed the towel over her head, making her hair go all crazy. She turned to Timothy.

"When I'm in a pool, I like to curl up in a ball and pretend I'm in the womb," Victorine said. He glanced at her in confusion, bit his lip, and turned his head the other way; clearly trying not question anything. She crawled over to Asha, making him cringe even more.

"Furry," he whispered under his breath, almost inaudible. Asha was sitting on a sofa adjacent from the one she was sitting on before. Victorine plopped herself down next to her.

"So, do you like the pool," Asha asked with a smile. Victorine nodded her head.

"And when it rains, the drops with fall on top of the roof and create a buncha splatters. Doesn't that sound pretty?'Sha told her. Victorine nodded harder.

"Once Mrs.Daniels let us go swimming on a Tuesday instead of a Saturday, just so we could swim in the rain. Wouldn't you want to do that sometimes?"

Victorine rubbed her bracelets against her ears in excitement with a smile.

"I'll take that as a yes."

Anais walked by with Thelma, their strides matching.

"You talk very...loud," Anais admitted.

"I know,"Thelma sighed.

"Well, you're self-aware, at least. That's good."

There was a pause. "I like you."

"Okay,"Anais answered. "Me too."

The room quieted down, as most of the kids had walked out. It was a boring kind, that didn't seem natural. Victorine's eye wandered, and she spotted the twins standing on the balcony overlooking the living room. Pauline smirked as she whipped out her room. Buckley looked over her shoulder with the same smile and his leg fidgeting in excitement.

Suddenly, weirdly happy music started blasting. Everyone's attention turned to it. Ms.Kion looked up from her book. Victorine had close to no idea what it was, but it sounded like polka. Whatever it was, the sound seemed to be coming from a device on a side table that looked like a hockey puck. As confused as everyone was, Asha started giggling. Which led to Parker starting to crack up. Which made Mrs.Daniels end up laughing as well. Upon that balcony, the twins were laughing their guts out without making a noise.

Horace, from another room, started yelling,"Stop playing that!" along with a mix of curses, as he stomped right his cousins. When he drew back his fist to punch, they scooted away laughing as Horace chased them around. The sound of their loud footsteps echoed throughout the house, along with the strange music.

"I'm gonna rip your faces off!" he yelled once the three had raced down the stairs. The mischievous two started darting around furniture to escape. Mrs.Daniels eventually stepped in front of them. They halted to a stop. Mrs.Daniels gave them both a deep side glare. The twins immediately turned off the music, looked over their shoulder and said,"Sorry."

Horace just rolled his eyes and turned to walk away. Mrs.Daniels grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him back around.

"What do you say?" she prompted. Horace bit his lip in frustration. The stare continued.

"Sorry," he apologized, begrudgingly. She let him go. When the twins scurried away, still giggling, Horace plopped himself down on the couch next to Asha. She scooted a bit away from him. Just to give her more room, Victorine climbed onto the arm of the sofa.

"Now, we have another status update on the outside world,"Ms.Kion informed, taking out a sheet of paper from her pocket. "Firstly-"

"Everything sucks!"Horace chimed in.

"Don't interrupt, young man," Ms.Kion reprimanded.

"Well, that's literally the Earth in a nutshell, so who cares?'

"Well, some would like to hear some more details, if you would please be polite. To begin, they have dropped a nuclear bomb on half of Canada."

"Half of a whole country?"Melissa asked.

"How 'bout when they nuked all of Borneo?"Lee asked.

"Or the fact that they vaporized Iowa," Parker suggested. "Like, Iowa literally doesn't exist anymore."

Horace turned his head to Asha and pointed a finger at her. "Hey, wasn't this started by your pe-"

"Don't say that!"Mrs.Daniels called out. He rolled his eyes. Ms.Kion resumed her listing.

"Ahem, next there's a list of towns that have been attacked this week: Mooresville, Abbottstown, Yourenetown, Falitoesland, two Middletown's..."

By then, the town names just started to clump together and became just a long, blurry list. Also, Victorine's attention had been turned away from that, and instead was focusing on Parker. He looked kind of like someone had punched him in the stomach. However, his face seemed like it was forcing itself to look unfazed. Even as she heard her own town get named, she was staring at Parker. She'd pretty much never seen anyone so discreetly pained in her life.

At least it didn't last too long. He up and left the room after a minute, treading up the stairs as his frown intensified. Ms.Kion glanced behind but then continued.

"Next, hurricane Winzer the Caribbean," she stated.

"Winzer?"Melissa questioned.

"There's running out of names," Lee pointed out. "Wasn't hurricane Whizzer last month?"

The next day, during said "Talent time," Victorine was creating quite a show for the other kids. She had slid right into a split effortlessly, and they were only sitting around, watching her. Horace was even cringing. Timothy was even smirking.

"I was able t' do that once,"Anais told everyone. "Once."

Victorine slid out of the split and rest her legs for a second. She pushed her forearms for the ground, moved on to an elbow stand. Her legs arched and motioned in circles. Her feet were pointed at her ankles rolled. When her legs moved back to the ground, and she sat on the floor, the others seemed just dumbfounded.

"I think I saw that on Dance Moms once..."Thelma breathed.

"Shut up,"Anais said.

"Guys! Are we still doing talent time?"Mrs.Daniels pointed out.

"Sorry!"Buckley said, getting back to scribbling.

"Honestly, take your time!'Parker called. "The more time that takes, the more time I'll have without you."

"Someone's salty," Timothy scoffed.

"Well, understandably so, I heard his hometown was hit," Asha justified.

"So was ours, and so was yours,"Horace muttered.
"Horace, enough. So let's continue."