A Peculiar Time in 1944 - A Millard Fanfic (Miss Peregrine's Home) #wattys2020

Chapter 31

"If you two can't play soccer without squabbling I do wish you wouldn't play at all."

"Don't you know what a referee is?" Hugh asked as his bees began crawling over his face. Then the two tried jumping high enough to reach the ball, when that didn't work Hugh tried jumping on Millard's back. When that also failed Aurora took pity on them and walked over to try and help.

"Try harder!" Hugh shouted.

"Why don't you just get Fiona to help?" Aurora offered.

"Because it embarrasses Hugh." Millard said earning a punch in the arm from the smaller boy.

"What?" Millard asked defensively, "You've had a crush on her since she came to our loop. Will you just bloody tell her already?"

Hugh put his hands in his pockets and looked at the ground but Fiona was already on her way over.

"Hey Fi." Aurora called, "Can you help the boys get their ball down?"

"In a minute." She replied quickening her pace and heading to Miss Peregrine, Emma and Jake. "Miss Peregrine there's a policeman at the door he says it's about Old Man Martin's house!" she called before joining the others. She grabbed the shrub by its tail and concentrated. Then the t-rex's jaw opened and the ball fell into the grass.

"Thanks Fi." Hugh said picking up the ball and tossing it between his hands.

"What happened to Mr. Martin's house?" Aurora asked.

"When Emma, Olive and Millard went after Jake apparently they got into a bit of trouble they neglected to tell us about. Olive set the house on fire after Millard started throwing dishes and furniture around." She said then joined Hugh as they kicked the ball back and forth. Aurora turned to Millard with her jaw hanging open in shock. Millard was fixing the cuffs of his shirt trying to avoid looking at her.

"You're a troublemaker Millard." She said quite frankly.

"It's an invisible thing." He shrugged.

"No it isn't." she said approaching him and lifting his chin so he'd look at her, she had the faintest hint of a smile on her face so Millard wasn't in too much trouble with her. "It's a Millard thing."

oOo oOo oOo

When they all sat at the dinner table that evening Aurora could hear among the chatter all the questions the children had for Jake about himself and the future. She sat in her usual seat, Claire on her left and to her right and empty chair followed by Hugh, then Olive, and finally the twins. Millard sat across from Claire tapping his silverware against the table when Jake and Emma walked in. Everyone grew silent at their arrival and Miss Peregrine welcomed them with a smile.

Jake seemed nervous but Aurora could see his curious nature as he watched Emma buckle herself into her chair. Unfortunately, while he was distracted he almost sat on Millard.

"Hey! Excuse me!" he shouted as Jake jumped back, his ears turning red.

"Millard," Miss Peregrine scolded, "Go and put some clothes on. Polite persons do not take their supper in the nude."

"Alright, alright." Millard caved in as the children snickered and the door swung open and shut in his departure.

"You can sit. . . here. . Jake." Olive's offer fizzled out as Jake took a seat next to Emma.

"Look at Enoch." Horace spoke up noticing the sour look on the older boy's face. "He's jealous."

"Why would I be jealous? Olive can go marry Jake for all I care." He grumbled.

"Don't be mean Enoch she doesn't want to she's just excited to have a visitor." Fiona defended the red head.

"No one is marrying anybody." Miss Peregrine said calling attention, though at her words Aurora swore she saw the headmistresses eyes dart in her direction for a brief moment. "Now eat up your food before it gets cold." She said taking a seat and everyone dug in.

"Hugh!" Olive cried as a swarm of bees escaped his mouth and buzzed about the room.

"Where's your net?" Emma asked swatting at bees. Hugh looked reluctant but still grabbed his hat from beneath his seat sucking in the hive of bees. Fiona and Olive both had questions for Jake but Miss Peregrine quickly saved him from the others interrogation with a short tempered line about 'living in the good old here and now.'

"Claire why aren't you eating?" she asked when she noticed the young girl hadn't touched a morsel.

"She's embarrassed in front of Jake." Aurora whispered to the headmistress but Jake still heard and encouraged Claire to eat. After a wink from Miss Peregrine and a bright smile from Aurora the little girl smiled and picked up the goose leg in front of her. She raised her curls and let her backmouth devour the flesh from the bone before smiling and returning the leg to her plate. Aurora took a napkin and dabbed the sharp teeth clean of drippings as Horace asked, "So Jake what's your peculiarity?"

"Oh." Jake stumbled over his answer, "Um, I'm, I'm not peculiar." He said with caution as if he might offend them. Odd. Aurora thought as she cut the large grapes on Claire's plate so they wouldn't roll when she tried to stab them with her fork. He hadn't discovered his peculiarity yet?

"And that my friends is why he will not be staying with us, no matter how hard we try to persuade him." Enoch said with an edge in his tone. There was a lot of hectic back and forth as the others discussed whether Jake wanted to stay or not. Aurora didn't see why none of them could notice how uncomfortable Jake looked as they talked like he wasn't even in the room. Aurora wished she had some way to kick them all under the table, sometimes they didn't know how strong they were coming on. "Why would he if he doesn't have to?" Enoch continued, "He can live out there. Grow older, have a good time instead. He'll leave, just like his grandfather did."

Emma looked appalled as she slammed down her silverware, unbuckled herself and stormed out of the room.

"Excuse me." Millard said as he side stepped Emma on his way back to the dinner table, "Where's she going?" he asked as he pulled out the empty chair beside Aurora.

"That wasn't nice Enoch." Miss Peregrine scolded, "You know perfectly well why Abe left us."

"To join the army." Hugh piped up pointing to the others, silently reminding them of their pact.

"And then he met a lady and had a nice wedding cake and a lovely little baby." Bronwyn added in.

"Children." Miss Peregrine said obviously trying to keep her composure, "I know you'd all like a new friend, but I'm sure Jake has plenty of his own back in Florida."

Just then the phone rang and the children all looked around at each other knowing who was on the line. Usually Abe's phone call was the highlight of their evening but with Jake here it seemed tense somehow. "I think, you should all get ready for movie time while I answer that." Miss Peregrine said standing and heading for the door.

"But you always let us stay for it." Claire whined which caused the headmistress to turn and look at them all sharply before continuing out of the room. When she left they all got out of their seats and went to put their pajamas on. Aurora helped Claire out of her seat as she heard Millard mumble in discontent next to her, "But I just got here."