Wonder • Five Hargreeves

23

The Hargreeve children did, in fact, get into trouble.

A fight broke out between siblings, on whether or not they should shut down their mother, Grace Hargreeves, for the murder of Reginald Hargreeves.

Diego took to questioning his mother directly, hoping to elicit a response; innocent or guilty.

—
An alarm bell rang, practically shaking the whole house. Flashing red lights accompanied the sound in a pavlovian attempt at training a calm correct response- but really only achieving inert stress and stupid blunders.

"Coming through!"

Allison Hargreeve shuffled down the main stair case and sprinted back through the hallway. She was dressed in her shiny black tactical uniform, searching for her mask to finish the look.

She almost ran full force into Ben, who was going down the same hallway with only the pants part of his uniform on. The zipper kept getting stuck and it was making it much harder to change speedily.

"How will the umbrella Academy ever become an effective crime deterrent if they cant even leave the house on time for missions?"

Reginald Hargreeve appeared from a connecting hallway, clapping his hands at the children. He glowered at all those passing him, including Luther; who had to literally jump around Reginald in order to continue forward.

"Come along children. Winnie! Where is the mission report?!" Reginald called.

"I cant find my sky blue!" Winnie cried from her room.

The young girl with her hair in two pale buns, spun around frantically. Paint was already sploshed across her uniform, with spare paintbrushes sticking out from every pocket.

"Today!" Winnie whined. "Day of the mission! I predicted this, what? Three weeks ago? And today we need the opening moves!" 

Grace Hargreeve appeared at her studio door, holding a fresh tube of paint. She smiled placidly as Winnie practically pounced on her.

"Love you Mom!" Winnie squealed. She stole the sky-blue tube of paint and squished it right into her hands. Then she spread it across her all her fingers and hastily applied it to the canvas.

"There! Finished! Dunno know what it is- but I got it!" Winnie shouted over the prevailing ruckus of her siblings.

"You do have paintbrushes on your person dear." Grace commented. Winnie curled her lip and looked down at her full pockets.

"Uh. Yea." Winnie shrugged her shoulders, blue hands in the air. "Lets not question the things I do when Im stressed."

"Of course not." Grace smiled.

She and Grace walked out of her room with the still dripping Canvas and towards the rest of the Umbrella Academy. Grace needed to make her motherly rounds and Winnie needed to show off the painting.

"I cant find my mask!" Allison recked her cabinets, searching for the domino mask that would 'allegedly' hide her appearance.

Grace plucked out the mask from her apron pocket and held it out. She smiled sweetly as Allison jogged over.

"It needed a little TLC after the last mission." Grace said.