Audibility- A Miss Peregrines Fanfiction #1

A Girls Day Out (In Cairnholm)

Sorry if the photograph was edited badly, it was either this or another one, but that road was too modern, so I chose this. What I think is an old lane in Cairnholm.

Emma had an announcement to make at breakfast.

"Nettalyn." She pulled me aside at the table. "Do you want to come with me, Bronwyn, and Fiona to the village? It's just something we do, you know, to get away from everybody else. I can understand if you don't want to." She said.

"Oh, no I'd love to come." I smiled. My first outing with the older girls. Did this mean I was accepted?

"Alright, great! We'll leave right after breakfast, then." Emma walked off.
~*~
We had just finished eating breakfast and then set out. Emma glanced behind her to make sure no one was following behind us. Their attention turned to me.

"Liking the house so far Netta?" Bronwyn asked.

"Great." I replied.

"Better than Miss Grouse's then?" Emma inquired.

"I think so. What I mean to say is, it's nice to get to know everyone in this loop better. Because of your pictures inside Hugh's letters and all of your descriptions, I feel as if I've known you most of my life." I said.

"Nobody special back there then?" She continued. I shook my head.

"Unless he came here with you?" Emma jumped on the subject. I paused a moment, thinking about my answer. Bronwyn beat me to it.

"Don't worry Emma, Abe's all yours." She smirked.

Emma turned a beautiful, light shade of crimson. "You know that's not who I meant." She stuttered, trying to deny it.

"Everyone can see it, my lovestruck young friend." Bronwyn said.

"Let's tune off that radio station, and move on to Fiona's life." Emma cut in. Fiona blushed, knowing what was coming.

"No Emma! We have Hugh's younger sister right here to hear it all." Bronwyn insisted.

"For Bird's sake, Bronwyn, the girls gotta be old enough by now. How old are you? Thirty? That's plenty. It's not like Olives here listening to our every word." Emma said.

"Well, yeah, but she probably doesn't want to hear it anyway."

"Fine then." We walked in silence the rest of the way into town, and down by the harbor, waves echoing in our ears. Practically everyone was in their homes still, except the fishermen, who were preparing their boats to go out to open sea. A place to not be overheard if we wanted to talk about loop matters, and a place to go swimming. We continued walking until we came to the edge of the island, where a small rowboat was moored.

Emma noticed me gawking and smiled. "What are you waiting for, then? Hop in!" We all managed to squeeze into the boat. Emma took out oars at the bottom of it and gave her and Bronwyn both a pair to row with. Soon enough we were out, heading torwards a lighthouse in the distance.

We struck ground and got out, making our way to a rickety wooden staircase leading up to the top of the lighthouse. This was no problem for me as I had no fear of heights. Once at the top we spread out, looking out the windows at the island of Cairnholm. It was strange, watching the people going about their business, and also knowing they did the exact same thing everyday. There were small boats out in the water now. Apparently, a fisherman's day starts at dawn. I turned to Bronwyn.

"And how often do you guys do this?" I asked.

"Whenever we feel the need to relax, because, let's face it, if Miss Peregrine and us were gone, half the loop wouldn't function properly." She laughed. "At least, that's what we say to make ourselves feel better about skipping out on everyone."

"Your not skipping out on anyone." I answered. "If Miss Peregrine thought it was wrong, would she let you do it?"

"No, I hope not."

"Good, because sometimes it's nice to take a break."

After some time, just gazing out on the world from the lighthouse, we came down and went back into the rowboat and rowed back.

"What's to eat around here?" I asked. "I'm starving."

"There's this decent place we go to, serves sandwiches and things. Could you imagine Miss Peregrine's face if she heard we went to the pub?" Emma laughed.

We continued walking until we came to a small shop. We came through the door, a bell jingled. A booth sat up against a window. The waitress came over.

"Hello, what would you like today?" She asked. I looked down at the menu.

"Lemon tea and fruit salad please." Answered Bronwyn. The waitress smiled.

"You're lucky." She said. "Last fruit salad available until further notice. Cargo ship delayed cause of bad weather they say. Could be coming to Cairnholm."

"Iced tea with lemon and grilled salmon please." Emma said.

"Same as her." I said, pointing to Emma.

"Water and jacket potato with salad." Fiona said quietly.

"Coming up!" The waitress said. While we were waiting for our food we talked some more.

"So, Netta, continuing our conversation earlier, I realize you do not like Abe." Emma said. "But where did all of you meet?" I remember that, it had only been three days since I had came to the loop.

"Miss Peregrine had brought Abe and Enoch to come get me." I answered.

"Yeah, Enoch is who I meant. But, really, what do you think of him?" Emma asked. Why does everybody keep asking me about it?

"What makes you ask?" I said.

"Only because it's obvious how he feels about you."

"What are you talking about?"

Emma acted surprised."You haven't noticed?" I shook my head. "Enoch stares at you all throughout dinner, Hugh is beginning to notice, and believe me when I say he is not happy." I sighed. Of course he's not happy. I am 32 years old, and I can take care of myself, but Hugh doesn't see it that way. One time, when I was in kindergarten, some boys in my grade were bullying me and he threatened to punch them. You can imagine what our parents thought of that at the time, not that they would've cared if it happened later in my life.

"I d-didn't know." I stuttered.

Bronwyn smiled sympathetically before speaking. "Don't get yourself worked up about it Netta, it's no big deal."
The waitress brought our food to the table. She clucked her tongue sympathetically.

"Boy trouble?" She asked. "Honey, if you're worried about it, just talk to the guy. Some of them are thick-headed. He probably doesn't realize it himself." Well thanks for the advice.

We walked back to the loop quietly. All I wanted to do was run up to my bedroom and fall asleep, but I knew I couldn't do that. Then I remembered that I had kitchen duty. I came through the wide archway through the kitchen and sighed with relief. It was mostly empty, save for Horace stirring a pot on the stove.

"How was your day?" He asked politely. I mustered a smile.

"It was... fine." I said after a minute. Dinner that night was amazing, (As usual,) and I soon fell asleep.

Thank you for your continuing support of this book, and for bearing with me when I don't always update. Apologies if you think this was sort of a filler chapter. Expect the next update soon.