Atropos → george weasley

xxxvi. the visit

When there was a knock on the door, Ottilie clicked her fountain pen, stuffed her latest letter in her composition notebook, and hurried to hide it in Adelaide's room as her mother answered the door.

Eleanor and Henry were exchanging hugs with Kanna and Simon when Ottilie returned to the kitchen.

Eleanor was a stern-faced woman with dyed brown hair who always wore a gaudy pearl necklace and clumpy mascara. Whenever she smiled, she looked sarcastic, which was especially true when she smiled at Kanna. Ottilie admired her mother for never once expressing a desire to slap it off Eleanor's face.

Henry was a tall man with wispy white hair who was round in the middle. He had worked as an accountant for about thirty-five years and all of his stories were about as interesting as one could expect from an accountant of thirty-five years.

They gathered around the table to eat. It was a bit of a tight fit with seven people, so Ottilie found herself trapped between Adelaide and Simon. Eleanor called Kanna's cooking interesting, which she accepted as though it had been a compliment.

Most of Eleanor's and Henry's questions were directed at Simon. He tried to bring his wife into the conversation several times, but Eleanor was excellent at dragging the topic back to either Simon, her husband, or herself.

It was uncomfortable and infuriating like it always was with Simon's parents.

The van der Hoevens and the Audens (Kanna's side) had a longstanding tumultuous relationship. It began when Simon started dating Kanna when they were sixteen.

At first, Henry had been neutral about the relationship, but Eleanor had loathed Kanna for no specific reason (Ottilie was pretty sure it had something to do with Eleanor feeling that Kanna was taking her darling son away from her).

At nineteen, Kanna got pregnant with Ottilie. The young couple decided they'd raise their child.

First, Simon's parents freaked out about him becoming a father so young and, behind Kanna's back, encouraged him to leave her. Then, after he didn't, they'd been furious when Kanna wanted to give Ottilie a traditional Japanese name. So, 'Rin' became her middle name instead, and her first name became 'Ottilie' to honor Kanna's great-grandmother.

They were upset that Kanna chose to finish university and complained that she insisted on getting a useless degree in entomology while their dear son toiled away in the hospitality industry.

And, of course, Ottilie's antisocial disposition was Kanna's fault.

To give them some credit, even if they did secretly blame Kanna for Adelaide's disorder, they were at least decent enough to keep it to themselves.

Adelaide was the only one they seemed to like, but Ottilie figured that was just because it was difficult to dislike Adelaide.

"Addie, how are you doing at your new school?" Eleanor asked Adelaide, who brightened up at the question.

"I love it! I'm taking piano lessons, and I'm learning to play the drums for the orchestra! I'm also taking art, and I've painted all kinds of things!"

"How about your friends?" Eleanor asked, almost like she was dreading the answer.

"I get to be with my friends Iris and Ruby again," she said. "And I've got new friends too! Like, there's this boy named Ren who talks to me sometimes. He always shares his snacks with me during breaks!"

Ottilie suppressed a grimace. On one hand, she was glad that Ren was doing his job—according to Adelaide, the bullying had not entirely disappeared but had gotten leagues better. On the other, she was highly uncomfortable with how much Adelaide seemed to like him.