Inferno

~66~ Throwing in the Towel

Taylor's POV

It's been a month, and Emma still isn't budging. Not a bit. She's polite, she does her chores without complaining, and she's still acting the same with me. I've even given her some pretty nasty chores to do, and she does them with a good attitude. I'm starting to feel like a schmuck.

I'm going to try one more time to break her before I give in. "Emma, I need you to come to the station with me tomorrow" I say sternly.

"Ok, why?" She asks, confused.

"I'm going to have you scrub the showers and the bathrooms. They're getting disgusting and I'm running out of things for you to do here" I say, keeping my face serious.

"Ok" she says with a small smile. She's freaking smiling at me. The other two would have given me major attitude. I've been trying everything to get this girl to cave. Sometimes I think she's the strongest of us all.

The next day as I'm leaving, I kiss everyone goodbye.

"Will you bring her by after school?" I ask Ellie.

"Yeah" she says in a clipped tone. She disagrees with me. She's been fighting for her for three weeks now. She's annoyed I haven't given in yet.

I kiss her again and leave.

I get to the station, and we've had a busy morning... Several calls. I've noticed that Nora and Liam have been talking more....Or rather, Liam's finally starting to pay attention to her. Could the house's magic finally have its spell over Liam? I'm thinking maybe so.

Around 3:30, Ellie brings Emma to me. I notice immediately that Ellie has a weird look on her face.

"What's wrong, baby girl?" I ask as I kiss her cheek. We're out in the living area, and she just shakes her head. It's obvious that she doesn't want to talk in front of everyone.

"Liam, can you get your sister started?" I ask, still looking at Ellie.

"Sure Chief" he says as he comes over and puts her in a headlock. She surprises all of us when she gets out of it with ease, with a huge smile on her face.

"Woah, nice moves there girly. Jake is really teaching you a few things" he says, kissing her cheek. "Come on, before we get in trouble" he says with his goofy grin. He has his arm around her shoulder as he leads her to the bathrooms.

"Come on" I say as I start walking to my office.

Once she's inside I shut the door.

"What's wrong?" I ask her warily.

"I'm not sure yet" she says, sitting in the chair. She looks tired.

"Which one?" I ask, sitting on the edge of my desk.

"Luke" she says simply.

I just nod.

"He's just a jerk to certain people at school. He's a cool, fun kid around his friends, but anyone else that doesn't fall into his clique, he's an ass too" she says, crossing her arms in disgust.

"What happened?" I ask her quietly.

"I didn't see anything. I just heard a girl crying in the hall. She finally got up the courage to talk to him, and he laughed at her and walked away. It broke her heart" she says, a tear falling down her cheek.

"Want me to talk to him?" I ask, getting mad.

"No. I want to take this one. I want to catch him first, though" she says, her voice getting low.

"I was an ass in school too" I say, ashamed.

She looks at me hard.

"That actually really surprises me" she says, not happy.