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When Anna had envisioned her Saturday morning earlier in the week, she hadn’t imagined she would be rudely awoken by booming music playing so loudly it rattled her skull, yet there she was.
Her hands flew to her ears as she groaned groggily, squinting around the room that was harshly lit by the morning sun that streamed through the window.
Everything appeared to be normal - her netball gear was still in a pile on her desk chair, and her wardrobe door was still hanging precariously off of its hinges from the time Anna had ended up smashing Anne into the door when she had hidden in there and jumped out at her - an event that Catalina had smugly announced to a wounded Anne was ‘what happened when you don’t just leave people the fuck alone’.
There was still the neatly folded stack of clothes near the door, delivered by Jane the day before, two months after she had stated her ironing Anna’s washing was a ‘one time thing’. Her headphones were missing from their stand on her shelf, but she gathered Cathy or Kat had borrowed them in the night.
But what wasn’t normal was the grating noise of a man proclaiming he was ’never gonna give her up’ blasting throughout the room.
It seemed to be coming from every direction - both inside her room and outside, and as she woke up more, Anna simply became more and more confused.
The song sounded like the kind of music Jane liked to listen to: old (well, maybe Forty or so years old - no way near as old as Jane herself) rock and roll songs that usually made Anna put on her headphones and blast Cardi B to try and drown them out. But unfortunately her usual coping mechanism couldn’t come in handy in this situation as her headphones had mysteriously disappeared. And there was no way Jane would be playing her music this loudly, and especially not in Anna’s room, the only person obnoxious enough to do that was-
Anna sighed, flickering her eyes shut and throwing her head back into her pillows.
Fucking Boleyn.
*
In the time it had taken Anna to get dressed and go to leave her bedroom, a headache had already started to form. The second she opened her door it increased tenfold, as somehow the music was about ten times louder outside the room than it was inside. It was probably due to the force of what seemed to be about fifty speakers playing in unison throughout the house.
Anna was already pretty sure it was Boleyn from this level of extra alone, but all it took was a walk along the hallway to confirm it. Jane and Kat’s rooms were playing at around the same level of somewhat bearable volume as her own, but when she got to Cathy’s she found herself having to stick her head through the open door and strain her ears to distinguish if there was any music playing in there at all. She was already prepared for what she would find when she got to Catalina’s room at the end of the hall, however she was still forced to take a step backwards from the sheer power of the volume being emmitted from the room.
As she swung the door shut, providing some sense of relief, Anna quite honestly wasn’t sure if she’d heard anything as loud in her life.
She smirked despite herself as she heard the sound of yelling from the top of the stairs leading to Anne’s loft bedroom. Taking two steps at a time, she hopped up the stairs in time with the music and was met with the other four victims huddled outside the door.
None of them noticed her at first. Jane was too busy knocking and calmly, but loudly, asking Anne to stop this and come out, her words largely drowned out both by the music and the ferocity of Lina’s voice as she yelled threats to the green queen and banged her fist agressively against the wood.
Kat and Cathy mainly just looked incredibly confused - Cathy had her signature black bags under her eyes that suggested to Anna that she had been nearing the end of an all night writing spree when everything had kicked off.
Kat was the first to notice Anna. She made eye contact with her, her face sporting a poorly contained grin of amusement.
“Good morning!” She yelled over the music, grabbing the other women’s attention.
“What’s going on?”
Lina shook her head at Anna’s question, a murderous look on her face.
“Fucking Boleyn.”
Evidently deeming that no further explanation was needed, she went back to abusing the door.
Jane offered Anna a tired smile.
“Good morning love. I’m not one hundred percent sure what’s going on, but there’s music coming from every room and we don’t know how to turn it off. Lina seems to think it’s Anne-“
“I KNOW it’s that little-“
“Kat believes shes hidden tiny speakers everywhere,” Jane ignored Catalina’s furious interjection. “But we cant find any.”
Anna turned to Kat.
“When we went shopping the other day we found lots of mini speakers that you can connect to with your phone with…Bluetooth?” She looked at Cathy for confirmation. “Yeah, anyway, they were in shapes like animals and stuff and, well, I saw that gremlin Anne look in her eyes and… here we are now.”
“Wait, you let her buy them?” Lina suddenly butted in to the conversation, her murderous gaze now levelled on Kat who put her hands in the air immediately.
“I didn’t let her do anything! She must have gone back and brought them!”
“Remember how quiet the house was on Thursday afternoon? She must have gone out and bought them then.” Cathy placated before Catalina could decide that Kat sharing Anne’s blood painted her as a suitable target for her vengence.
The older woman stopped banging on the door and simply stood glowering at it, breathing heavily. Kat paled and moved to hide behind Jane, but Lina seemed to have a different target in mind.
“Boleyn! If you don’t open this door within the next ten seconds I WILL kick it down!”
Jane blanched. “Woah, well wait a second Lina-“
Catalina started counting down. Cathy looked at Jane.
“You don’t think she’ll actually knock it down do you?”
“Oh, she definitely will.” Kat responded.
“Or she’ll just get me to do it.” Anna muttered bitterly.
Sure enough, when Lina got to zero and she door hadn’t budged, she turned to look pointedly at Anna. She sighed, wincing apologetically at Jane’s pleading face, and knocked the door down with a swift kick, thankful for the first time that morning that they weren’t very thick.
Rick Astley serenaded her movements as she walked into the room, Lina storming in close behind her. She was expecting to see Anne sat on the bed, grinning at the mischief she’d caused, possibly to have to protect her from Lina, but the room was empty. Well, not empty - the floor was littered with piles of clothes and plates that Jane wrinkled her nose at as she entered the room - and there was still music blasting from every direction - but there was no Anne Boleyn in sight.
“What the hell?” Kat exclaimed, then promptly hid behind Cathy as Lina glowered at her.
“She’s not here.” Jane said blankly, staring at the empty bed.
Anna scratched her head. “Maybe she’s hidden somewhere in here? Can’t hurt to take a look.”
Their search of the room was extremely thorough - Lina threw everything off of Anne’s bed and all of her clothes out of the wardrobe on to the floor ‘in order to make sure she definitely wasn’t hidden under them’.
As they realised she most certainly wasn’t hidden in her own bedroom (which now was about ten times messier then it was when they entered), Anna could see Catalina getting more and more frustrated, and Jane placed a gentle hand on her shoulder in a bid to try and prevent her from throwing Anne’s desk chair through the window.
“Maybe she’s gone out?” Anna offered weakly, her head pounding. The thought of this idea seemed to make Lina too furious to function. Jane saw this and hurriedly tried to soothe the situation.
“Why don’t we all just try to find the speakers around the house and turn them off. If Anne’s here then we’ll find her in the process, and if she’s not then…” She glanced at Lina. “Well, let’s just try to refrain from murdering her when she gets back.”
“Why?” Lina asked, genuinely confused. Jane looked scared.
“Okay, yeah, we’ll do that.” Anna nodded in agreement. Kat and Cathy stayed upstairs to search the bedrooms with her as Jane led Catalina downstairs.
The second the two were out of sight Kat and Anna made eye contact and burst out laughing. Cathy shook her head with a smile on her face.
“This is ridiculous. HOW has she managed to pull this off?” She said loudly, her amusement spilling into her voice.
“Lina is going to murder her. She’s actually going to kill her.” Kat managed through her laughter.
Anna walked into Jane’s room, followed by the other two, and peered under the bed .
“Well hopefully we can just find the speakers and every thing will go back to normal.”
Kat groaned. “Normal meaning that we get to listen to Lina shout at Anne for the rest of the day when she finally makes an appearance. I’d rather take the music.”
“Yeah, we’ll see if you still think that if it turns out we can’t find the speakers.” Cathy replied, opening the drawers in Janes dresser.
“Well you’ll be fine won’t you Cathy, the speakers are so quiet in your room that you actually have to strain your ears to hear them. Mine aren’t that quiet and I’m her cousin. What’s that about?”
“Maybe you’ll be thankful for my quieter room-“
“Guys, come on, we’re already going to have to deal with Anne and Lina going at it, don’t you two start.” Anna stared pointedly at them until they backed down. “Okay, good. Now, searching time.” The two of them stared at her.
“Don’t look at me like that - they’re colourful little things right? Easy to spot. It shouldn’t be too difficult.”
It was, in fact, too difficult.
Anna didn’t understand how Anne had hidden them so well. The three of them searched for a good hour and came back with only five speakers - three found in Janes room and two in Anna’s. None of them were brave enough to attempt even entering Catalina’s room, and their search of Cathy’s room had been cut short when the low volume level led to the realisation that the search was pointless, and another argument broke out between the two other girls which Anna had to quickly diffuse.
As Anna finished searching in Kat’s desk she put her hands on her hips and stared around the room, baffled.
“Anne has to have hidden speakers in the floorboards or something because this ridiculous.”
Kat poked her head out from the wardrobe and stared at her with wide eyes.
“…For fuck sake - I bet she actually has as well.”
The three of them looked at each other and quickly came to a silent agreement that none of them quite fancied pulling the floorboards up at eight thirty on a Saturday morning. Instead they headed downstairs to see how Jane and Catalina were faring.
The two of them seemed to have done a better job searching than they had, probably due to the practice of having to find the various items that Cathy, Kat, and Anne commonly misplaced around the house, and as they arrived in the lounge they were met by a small pile of speakers, each of them silent, and looking suspiciously like they had been stamped on. However, despite the destruction of around twelve speakers, Rick Astley’s voice still boomed relentlessly throughout the room.
Jane stood in front of the pile, her hair a mess from repeatedly running her fingers through it. She looked up at them with wild eyes as they entered the room.
“We just can’t find anymore! I thought we could just follow the sound, but the sound’s coming from everywhere!”
Kat sat the hysterical woman down on the sofa and began to calm her down, speaking to her in soft tones that Anna couldn’t make out as her and Cathy began their own search of the room. Their attempts were fruitless, however, and Catalina, who had returned from the kitchen with two completely smashed up speakers five minutes before hand and had been restlessly pacing the room ever since, was getting angrier and angrier.
Cathy managed to convince her to at least try and relax a bit and read a book in her own quieter room, but the suggestion was doubtful as she said it, and within minutes Catalina was back again, searching with renewed vigour.
After another twenty minutes, and the discovery of only a single speaker (this one Kat was the one to kick across the room, now thoroughly irritated by the onslaught of music), Jane suggested they all just get out of the house for a bit and let it play out until Anne got bored. They all looked doubtfully out the window at the pouring rain. However, as the song ended and started again for the thirteenth time, they were all quick to run and get their shoes on.
As she walked into the hallway, Anna noticed for the first time that there wasn’t any music coming from the cupboards - or the utility room. Her eyes flickered shut and she shook her head.
Of course Boleyn would think ahead enough to make it so her hiding place didn’t have any speakers in so they wouldn’t find her while tearing the house apart trying to get rid of them. That girl’s mind scared her sometimes.
She hesitated as she placed her hand on the door handle, questioning whether Anne really deserved to be murdered by Lina. Unfortunately, the others spotted her and quickly came over.
“Do you think she’s in there?” Jane asked.
Anna went to reply, but Catalina was already slapping her hand off of the handle and ripping the door open.
The room was pitch black and they didn’t see her for a moment, but then Anna caught sight of Anne, stuffed down the side of the washing machine. She was staring at them like a deer caught in headlights, but she still looked incredibly proud of herself as she opened her mouth to speak.
“Hi.”
Catalina grabbed her by the back of her shirt and pulled her to her feet, dragging her past the others and into the lounge. The others quickly followed, listening to Anne’s complaints and watching with a large sense of satisfaction as Lina threw her face first into the sofa. Anna could only be thankful that she didn’t do anything worse to her. Anne scrambled to sit up, and was met by the five of them stood in front of the sofa, looking down at her thoroughly unamused.
“Good morning everyone.” She said with a smile. They all stared blankly at her for a moment then Lina lunged forward. Anna and Cathy only just managed to grab her arms in time to hold her back from beating Anne to a pulp. Jane sat down on the sofa next to the second queen, a threateningly calm look on her face that the others knew as possibly the only thing that scared Anne. Anna called it her ‘Mum’s gonna slap you face’. Sure enough, Anne scooted herself backwards into the sofa.
“Anne. I’m not sure why you’ve decided to do this, but you need to tell us how to turn it off.” Jane spoke carefully, as if talking to a small child.
Anne let out a long and exaggeratedly loud breath as she pretended to mull the decision over. She then shrugged.
“Sorry, no can do amigo.”
Catalina growled and Janes head darted towards her before looking back at Anne.
“What do you mean no can do?”
“No can do.” She shrugged again then folded her arms, leaning back into the sofa.
Lina pulled her arms out of Cathy and Anna’s grasp but didn’t move to lunge again. She simply smoothed down her shirt and said to Anne, in a low, and threatening tone: “If you don’t tell us how to turn this music off I will kill you.”
To Anna’s horror, Anne simply replied; “I’ve died before.” With a shit eating grin.
Anna could see the exact moment that any allegiance Kat and Cathy had to Anne left them, and they quickly moved closer to Catalina, who was restraining herself remarkably well in Anna’s opinion.
“Okay.” She gritted her teeth in a sweet smile. “How about this. If you tell us how to do it right now then I won’t do anything to you. Anything at all.” Anna’s eyes widened along with the others.
Anne pretended to consider it. “Well, it’s still a no, but I suppose for that kind offer I can return the earplugs I hid from the bathroom cabinet as a peace ordering.”
“What’s the point of this then if we can’t hear?” Kat threw her hands in the air.
“It’s a matter of principle.”
“Since when did you have any principles?!”
“No no, okay girls, alright, we can work with this.” Jane spoke up. She looked at Anne.
“We’ll take the ear plugs. Go and fetch them, please.” Anne looked surprised and suspicious but she stood up. Lina grabbed her arm in a vice grip and muttered not to even think about making a run for it. She pushed her forward and the two of them walked (stumbled, in Anne’s case) out of the room.
When they returned to the room a minute later, miraculously still alive, Anna let out a breath she hadn’t realised she was holding.
The earplugs were handed out and although they didn’t completely block out the sound, they made it a lot more bearable. She saw Cathy let out sigh.
“Okay!” Jane said. Anne gave her a side eyed glance, her face showing that she’d realised she wasn’t in control and she didn’t like it.
“Since you like the music so much that it has to stay on, Anne, you can stay sat right here on the sofa listening to it. All day - or, for as long as you decide you want to keep it on for.”
Anna smirked as Anne’s face fell.
“But I was going to go out.”
“Oh I know you were.” Janes facial expression could only be described as malicious. “But I think we can keep you company here.”
Anne let out a nervous laugh.
“Well.. I - surely you guys have plans.”
“I’m fine taking a shift keeping an eye on you.” Kat spoke up quickly, a wicked smile on her face.
“Yeah.” Cathy said. “We don’t all have to give up our entire day, we could take it in turns as the others go out.”
“Yeah, with all five of us, It could go on forever” Lina hissed the last word right in Anne’s ear. She jumped and struggled to compose herself, but then a second later the game was back on.
“Well brilliant, I’m glad you want to stay and enjoy the music too.” She sent a grin around at them. “Who’s going to be first?”
Lina’s face fell slightly but Jane looked triumphant. Anna knew as well as her that they had a winning plan.
Jane took the first shift at home as the others decided they would go out as the rain had paused in its downpour. The last thing Anna saw was Anne looking thoroughly terrified as Jane sat down next to her, looking like a predator eyeing up its prey and as she told her they were going to have a “little chat.”
Upon Cathy’s request, they headed to the coffee shop down the road, where Catalina and her got into an argument over the fact that no, she couldn’t have 8 shots of expresso in her latte. Kat and Anna settled for hot chocolates and stood sipping them as they watched the two argue, relishing the ability to hear their own thoughts in the quiet shop.
When Cathy finally gave in (Catalina wasn’t going to lose an argument today, she was already at her breaking point with Anne), the four of them decided to walk through the park as they prolonged having to return to the house and relieve Jane of her torment. Cathy suggested just leaving her to deal with it herself as she had the bright idea of staying there, but before the others could set their loyalty to Jane aside and agree, in true English fashion, it started to rain again.
They ran home in considerably higher spirits, conspiring all of the ways they could torture Anne until she gave in.
Jane greeted them as they arrived home, opening the door and refusing to let any of them enter until they took their wet shoes off. Kat and Anna were the first in. They ran through to the lounge where they found Anne surprisingly still sat exactly where they had left her, looking a lot paler than usual.
“What did Jane say to you?” Kat asked curiously. Anne simply shook her head and glanced at Jane who sent her an all too innocent smile.
Anna took that as an invitation to drop herself down on the sofa next to her and throw an arm around her shoulders. Anne jumped violently at the movement and Anna realised that she probably hadn’t had much, if any, sleep due to spending the night setting everything up. A Cheshire Cat smile made its way onto her face.
“Hey Bo.” She said. Cathy dropped down on Anne’s other side and Anna’s smile widened as the other girl blushed red at their close proximity.
“Hi Anna…” She glanced uncertainly between the two of them on either side of her and tried for a smirk. “What’s this, cuddle time?”
“Nope.” They both moved closer so she was squeezed uncomfortably in between them.
“I just thought we could all just sit on the sofa together and you know, entertain ourselves - I’ve got a podcast to listen to-“
“I’ve got my book.” Cathy pulled a book out from down the side of the sofa.
“Yep! And you’ve got some lovely music to listen to!” Anne’s face hardened as she realised what they were doing. Anna popped her headphones, which had appeared on the kitchen table, in her ears. “And just music, nothing else - no social media to scroll through because Catalina is looking at your- never mind, no, Catalina just smashed your phone,” Anne’s head whipped around and she craned her neck to look at Lina in the kitchen, unable to move her body at all to get a better look. “Sorry about that.”
Cathy glanced up towards the ceiling as the music continued. “And smashing it didn’t solve the problem! The music’s still on, that’s nice for you isn’t it?”
“Spectacular.” Anne said drily.
Anna knew for a fact the next hour was torture for Anne. The girl never sat still at the best of times, and she wiggled vehemently stuck sandwiched between them as they ignored her in service of reading and listening.
A few times she tried to start a conversation and Anna shut her eyes to completely block her out.
Jane left for the shops about twenty minutes in and Anna cracked an eye open as she returned, smirking at her amused look. She chanced a glance at Anne next to her and had to stifle a laugh at the thoroughly disheveled girl sat next to her, her clothes crumpled from her struggles between the two of them.
Cathy’s face was one of guilt and as she opened her mouth to probably apologise to Anne, Jane dragged her into the kitchen before she ruined their plans, where she dropped a bag onto the counter and loudly announced that she’d bought Pizza. Anne perked up at this, and Anna raised an eyebrow at how she still thought she’d be getting any.
She decided to go through and get some plates out of the cupboard, keeping an eye on the sofa where Anne had now been left alone. The song started again and she found herself humming along before she caught herself and stopped before anyone heard.
She set the plates down on the table with a bang and eagerly opened one of the pizza boxes.
“Lunch!” Jane yelled. Kat came rushing into the room and leant over Cathy, who had been made to sit down at the table, to grab a plate.
Anne bounced up out of her seat no doubt to come and get some food too, but Catalina looped an arm around her (it looked more like a headlock to Anna) and pulled her back down onto the sofa.
“Where do you think you’re going?” The other queens craned their necks to watch with interest from the other end of the open plan kitchen and lounge.
“To get food?” Anne looked at Lina like she was stupid.
“I thought we agreed you’d stay on the sofa all day?”
“Yeah but lunch! You can’t starve me!”
“Don’t worry Anne, I got you a meal deal.” Jane smiled and threw her a ham sandwich, a packet of ready salted crisps and a bottle of water.
Anna didn’t even try to hold in her cackle. Kudos to Jane - she must have been listening in when Anne and Kat had been loudly rating different meal deals a few weeks before. They had both come to a consensus that the worst meal deal of all - the meal deal so bad in fact that it should be criminal, Anne had argued, was a plain ham sandwich, ready salted walkers, and a bottle of water.
Anne stared at Jane in disbelief.
“What?” Jane was trying not to laugh. “Dig in.”
“You’re lucky you’re getting anything.” Catalina grumbled, leaving to get some pizza herself as Kat came and sat next to Anne.
Anna had a sneaking suspicion that the girl wouldn’t eat all six pieces of pizza on her plate, but she decided to let it slide. Those cousins were way too soft on each other.
They managed to go through all four boxes of pizza, largely ignoring whatever was going on in the lounge and instead loudly talking to each other over the music. When they went through to see what Anne and Kat were up to after cleaning up, they found the two of them sat watching Tom and Jerry on mute, an empty plate between them. Catalina threw her hands in the air and turned to Kat, thoroughly frustrated.
“How is this getting her to turn this stupid music off?”
Kat shrugged, not looking away from the TV.
“I dunno, I just figured we let it play out until the speakers run out of battery.”
Catalina growled in frustration and grabbed the controller, turning the TV off. Both queens on the sofa groaned.
“That’s not the point Kat! We can’t just indulge her! That won’t work!” Anne simply glanced between the two of them, unbothered.
Something suddenly clicked in Anna’s mind as Kat started to retort back to Lina. The oldest queen was wrong - indulging Anne was EXACTLY what would work.
While she was having her brainwave, Jane dragged Catalina into the kitchen to calm her down before she murdered the two cousins, and Cathy sat down next to Anne and was pleading with her to just tell them because she didn’t know if they could hold Lina off from murdering her for any longer.
Catalina’s voice rose into a shout and Anna caught Kat’s eye and nodded for her to follow her into the hallway. She shut the door behind them.
“What’s up?” Kat asked.
“How would you like to go and see the new marvel movie. In the cinema. Right now.”
“But weren’t we going to watch it with Anne on Thur… oh.” Kat’s face widened into a grin as she caught onto Anna’s plan. “Oh you’re good.”
“Yep. I’m more than just a pretty face.”
Kat rolled her eyes. “Yeah yeah, let’s just go and finish this.”
As they reentered the room, Anna could just make out Cathy and Anne’s conversation.
“When did you put the speakers in my room? And why…” Cathy flushed slightly red. “Why were they so quiet?”
“I put them in there yesterday morning because I knew you would be writing all night. And you know, I didn’t want to disturb you while you were writing so I made sure they were quiet so you could still focus.” Anne shrugged nonchalantly, but Anna was surprised to see her looking uncharacteristically vulnerable and serious.
“… You could focus right? I didn’t ruin your work or anything because I-“
Cathy shook her head and Anne sent her a lopsided grin.
“Good. I also didn’t count on the fact you would let Lina take refuge in there though, so, probably didn’t think that one through.”
Both girls smiled softly at each other and Anna rolled her eyes.
Anne needed to woman up and ask Cathy out instead of constantly pining over her - and soon, because Anna really needed her £50 from Kat so she could get a new bag. And she also really needed to rub it in her, Lina, and Jane’s faces how she was right and they were all blind.
She then sighed as the two noticed her and Kat were back in the room and blushed red, looking everywhere except for at each other.
Maybe she’d have to make do with her old bag for a little while longer.
She clapped her hands together.
“Right, me and Kat are going out.”
Anne immediately furrowed her eyebrows, and Cathy tilted her head at Anna in confusion - this wasn’t part of the plan.
“Where?” Anne demanded.
“To the cinema - we’re going to see the new marvel movie.”
Anne’s mouth dropped open. “What? No! The three of us were going to see that together!”
Anna shrugged, making sure to look uninterested. “Well you can come if you want, just tell us how to turn the music off.”
Anne stared at her and Anna stared straight back, feeling triumphant. Jane and Catalina hurried back into the room.
“If you don’t want to then-“
“No! Stop, I’m thinking.” Anne sat with her face screwed up, squinting at the floor. Kat, used to her cousins dramatics, rolled her eyes and grabbed her coat.
“Alright bye then.”
“No no no! Wait! Fine, fine.” Everyone’s eyes widened. “I’ll tell you how to turn it off.”
Jane’s jaw dropped and she stared at Anna in awe.
“It’s all connected to my laptop, the programme will be open on it when you turn it on, you just need to shut it down.” Anne looked miserable at having her fun ruined, but the rest of them just stared at her at disbelief.
“Seriously? It’s just on your laptop?” Kat shook her head as Anne perked up slightly and nodded, looking proud of herself.
Jane sighed. “Where is it?”
“Under Cathy’s bed.” Cathy whipped her head around to stare at Anne who shrugged.
“You weren’t going to look in there.” She raised an eyebrow challengingly. “Did you?”
“…No.” Anna sighed. Damn her.
“Didn’t think so.” Anne sang. Cathy shoved her into the side of the sofa but looked amused as she got up to go and find the laptop. The others stood around and looked at each other as she left the room.
“How did you do that?” Jane’s question is directed at Anna, who levels her gaze on Anne and smirks smugly as she replies.
“You had the right idea but you were going about it wrong. You didn’t give her the option to give in in order to have the pizza or leave the house. You’ve got to get her to make the decision that one things going to benefit her more than the other.“
“I don’t know if this is more like raising a teenager or dog training.” Jane shook her head.
Anne had been staring back at Anna with fear in her eyes that she had figured her out, but she snapped her head away at Jane’s comment.
“Hey! I’m over five hundred years old, I am not a teenager. Or a dog!” She exclaimed indignantly. Lina was quick to argue back that she, in fact, was both of those things. But then, before it can scale into a full blown Boleyn-Aragon argument, the music stopped.
It was silent.
None of them moved as they heard - actually heard - Cathy walk down the stairs. She ran into the room triumphantly.
“It worked…” The silence was broken as Anne jumped up and ran to get her shoes on. Lina’s eyes narrowed.
“Uhhh where do you think you’re going?”
“To the cinema.”
Anna shrugged. “I said she could if she told us…”
Catalina closed her eyes, breathing deeply. Kat backed away but Anna was in no way as scared of Lina’s temper as her or Jane.
“You are not rewarding that little shit.”
She went to respond but was cut off as Anne sped into the room, grabbed Cathy’s hand, and dragged her out of the front door. Kat was quick to follow and Anna backed out of the room, grimacing apologetically.
“Sorry.”
She shot through the door and slammed it behind her.
Catalina stared at the closed door in defeat, and Jane rubbed a hand across her back supportively. She turned and stalked into the kitchen.
“I need some wine.”
“I second that.” Jane glanced around the silent room, a haunted look on her face.
“I swear I can still hear him…”