Chapter Text
New school, new lines
The house is quieter now, she can just about hear the girls whispering in their room and from downstairs is the faint clack of typewriter keys, meaning that Wednesday is still working. When she gets to the bottom of the stairs, she picks up the coat that has been dumped on the end post and hangs it on the hook by the door. Standing in the hall she realizes that the house is always going to be this quiet from now on and that she will miss the noise and the chaos the girls create.
Enid closes the door to Wednesday’s office and goes to lean against the desk, Wednesday stops her typing and looks up at her. With its severe black furniture and dark walls, the room always looks gloomy to her, and she shivers slightly, but it is how Wednesday wants it. She says that it helps her write, but Enid suspects that she just wants a space that is totally hers. She understands as her own office is such a riot of color that Wednesday refuses to even open the door.
“Have they gone to bed?”
Enid sighs and shakes her head. “They have, but I heard them talking, I think that they will still be awake for a while.”
Wednesday takes her hand. “Well, it will be an adventure for them, they have never been to a boarding school before. I think that they are finding the prospect of starting at Nevermore daunting.”
“They seem OK when we visited the school to show them what is was like.”
“Enid, that was for less than a day and they knew that they would be going home with us, this is different.”
“Wends are we doing the right thing? I don’t want to lose them.”
“Sinclair, you are not losing them they are just going to school for a few months. They’ll have their phones we can contact them whenever we want. Anyway, we had to find a new school for them after the fire.”
“That was nothing to do with them.” Enid says firmly.
Wednesday glowers as she remembers that conversation at the school. “I know, it wasn’t their fault despite the cruel remarks that so-called science teacher made. I was glad I was there to restrain you. You looked like you were going to wolf out on him.”
Enid grins and runs her fingers over Wednesday’s knuckles. “And I was there to stop you pulling a knife on him, that would not have gone down well.”
“I still should have, the things he said about our girls. He would have deserved it.”
“He was wrong, we know that. It was also a good opportunity to further the girl’s education. I’m sure that it will work out for the best.” She smiles and leans down to kiss her wife.
Wednesday laughs. “I thought I was the one that has the visions of the future.”
“And what do your visions tell you?”
Wednesday frowns. “I haven’t had any vision about them at Nevermore.”
Enid wraps her arms around her and whispers. “That’s good. Hopefully, that means nothing bad will happen to them. It is a pity that they will still be arriving under a slight cloud.”
“The fire was not their fault there should be no cloud for them to be under.”
“They will be a bit like you” Enid smirks.
Wednesday widens her eyes in shock. “Perhaps but I was justified in what I did, but they have done nothing wrong.”
“Yes, and we will make that clear to Mr. Everard.” Enid smiles at her, giving her hand a squeeze. “What did you think of him?”
“Everard, he’s like an ineffectual middle manager. He’ll keep the school running but has no actual love for the school or the students.”
“We’ll have to keep an eye on him.”
“Definitely yes.” Enid agrees with her.
“Are we doing the right thing?”
“Yes.” Enid lifts her hand up and kisses it. “Yes, we are, and it will be good for them to have their senior years at Nevermore.”
“Are you sure about the separate rooms?”
“Yes, it will be important that they develop as individuals. The different halls and rooms should help with that, but I expect that they will still spend a lot of time together.”
Enid glances at the clock on the wall as it chimes the hour, this is the only room in the house with a mechanical clock. “Now are you finished we have an early start tomorrow if we are to get the girls to Nevermore.”
###
Cradling her coffee mug, Enid watches as Wednesday supervises the packing of their car, beside her Raven fidgets on the roost in his travel cage cawing occasionally and flapping his wings.
“I’m sorry Raven but the cage is only temporary.” She tells the large black bird. She has never understood why Naimh named the raven Raven.
“Caw” he calls out and looks at Monday struggling under a pile of boxes and bags. Enid puts down her mug and rushes over to Monday in time to catch the topmost bag as it falls. She puts the bag on the ground and takes some of the boxes off her daughter.
“I can manage.” Monday moans.
“I know you can Monday but be careful you don’t have to take so many boxes.”
“But Momma said we have to hurry.” She says looking at the half empty car.
“What she said was we should not be late. We still have plenty of time even if you have to make more trips to fetch your boxes.”
“They are not my boxes.” Enid wraps Monday in a hug. “Thank you for helping your sister. Now check with Momma and get these boxes loaded.”
“What are you going to do.” The girl asks.
“I’m going to check on Naimh, I’ll leave Raven in charge of supervising the packing.”
“Mom!” The girl moans and wriggles her arms as Enid kisses her cheek before turning to dash inside the house.
Wednesday pokes her head around the edge of the car “Where did Mom go?”
“To help Naimh” Monday hands over the boxes she is carrying and them points at the birdcage. “She said that Raven was in charge.”
Wednesday glares at the bird, daring it to comment, Raven looks away unable to hold her stare. Shaking her head she looks at the boxes. “Are these yours?”
“No, they are Naimh’s.”
“Good, can you get the rest of your boxes and leave Naimh to bring her own boxes down.”
“But Momma I want to help her.”
“I know you do, but let’s get you packed first.” Wednesday puts the boxes in the emptier half of the trunk. She looks back at the sound of an approaching electric motor. There is a tall stack of boxes slowly wobbling their way down the ramp and out of the house.
“Stop right there, young lady.” Wednesday commands loudly and the stack of boxes judders to a wobbling halt at the bottom of the ramp. Wednesday removes the uppermost boxes to reveal Naimh, her other daughter trying to peek around the stack of boxes.
“I can manage.” Naimh moans.
“I know you can Naimh but be careful you don’t have to take so many boxes.”
Monday titters to herself causing the other two to look at her. “What! That’s what Mom said to me when I was carrying too many boxes.”
“And she was right, my terrible twins. Now Monday go and get the rest of your things while we pack these boxes.” Wednesday packs the boxes she is holding in the trunk, before taking the rest of the boxes from Naimh.
“Now go get the rest of your things but not too many.”
“The chair can take them.”
“I’m not worried about your wheelchair; I’m worried about you, if you can’t see where you are going then you could have an accident or crash into something or someone.”
“I’m sorry Momma, but I just wanted to help.”
“You are helping, you are helping a lot, but be smart about it, OK.”
Naimh spins her wheelchair about and heads back into the house. “Raven, look after Momma.”
“Caw” the bird calls to her as she vanishes into the house before turning to look at Wednesday, who is glaring at him.
###
Enid walks into the girls’ room folding a t-shirt as she goes and she sees Monday sitting on her bed with her head bowed down.
“Monday what’s wrong?” She asks as she sits down next to her.
“I’m worried Mom.” Monday wraps her arms around her mother.
“About the new school? It’s just a school, there is nothing to worry about.”
“No about Naimh.”
Enid smiles, “you don’t have to worry about your sister. That’s my job.”
“But I do.”
“You don’t have to. She’s been away on her own before. She went on that school trip to Washington when you were ill. You both went to visit Grandpa Murray last summer. She survived that, even though the house was not adapted for her chair.”
“Yes, but I do worry about her.”
“Monday don’t worry about her. I’ll do that for both of us, OK. I’ll probably be sleeping in here for a week because I’ll miss you so much.” Enid pats the bed beside her.
“Mon, what’s going on?” Naimh asks from the doorway.
“Mom is afraid she is going to miss us Neavie.”
“Mom, don't worry about us,” Naimh says as she gets closer, “we need you, our big bad wolf.”
Enid protests “I’m not bad.”
“You can be. You fought an entire werewolf clan out in the woods.”
“It was not the whole clan.” Enid shakes her head; it was the first time she had wolfed out in front of the girls. It was not how she had planned on them finding out.
“And when Mr. Frobisher refused to install more wheelchair access at school, you went medieval on his ass.” Monday reminds her.
“Language! I merely expressed my opinion of his decision.” Enid says carefully.
“You broke the corner off his oak desk.” Monday continues before Naimh finishes her sentence.
“And threw an office chair through the door.”
Monday picks up her tale. “Then there were the claw marks on the ceiling.”
“You can still see them, despite the new paint work. I saw them when they were trying to pin that fire on us.” Naimh adds.
Enid throws up her hands “OK, OK not my finest hour.”
Naimh smirks, “It worked Mom. He was mixing concrete for new ramps before school was out that day.”
Enid smiles at her girls. “OK, do you have everything you’ll need packed. Remember we can send anything you have forgotten within reason.”
“I have everything I need. Mon?” Naimh answers for the twins.
“I’m ready.”
Enid gets up, “OK come on and let’s find Momma.”
###
Wednesday is standing at the door waiting for them, she holds out a small parcel wrapped in brown paper. “Enid this parcel just came for you.”
“Hmm” she hums as she studies it. ”It is tightly bound up and there is no return address. I’m going to need a knife to get into it.” There is a whisper of metal moving against leather and suddenly there are three knives being held out for her.
Shaking her head she smiles at her three girls. “I don’t want to know, I’ll use my own!” she holds up her hand and claws extend from the fingertips, quickly she slices the end of the parcel. Looking inside she breaks into a big grin. “Thing!”
The hand scurries out of the parcel and up her arm, Thing surveys the scene before jumping onto Naimh’s lap who picks him up and coos over him.
“Well, Naimh it looks as if you will have a helping hand at Nevermore.”
“Mom! That was such a dad joke.” Monday groans.
Ignoring the criticism Enid smiles at Wednesday. “OK time to go, Wends can you stow Naimh’s chair while I lock up and then we can be away.”
###
To distract herself from the chatter coming from the back of the car Wednesday asks “Where did those cargo trolleys come from? They are not ours, are they?”
“No, I borrowed them from work, together with some bungee cords to hold everything in place.”
“What are they for?” Naimh asks leaning forward against her seat belt.
“They will help us move all your stuff to your rooms. Hopefully, we should be able to do it in one trip if we can stack everything on the trolleys.”
“Why didn’t we use them at home.”
“The trips were too short and there were too many turns.”
###
“Why are you smiling?” Wednesday asks looking at Enid grinning like a maniac as she drives.
“Actually, I was thinking of all the fun we can have now that the house is empty. It will be like when we first moved in together, it was just us. We will have the place to ourselves, it will be magical,”
“Mom!” Monday complains.
“Don’t worry sweetheart we won’t forget about you.”
###
“Are we there yet?” Monday asks.
Enid checks the AI navigation screen on the dashboard “Almost, it is under a mile away.”
“We’re sorry Momma, we didn’t see your elephants.”
Wednesday turns to Enid and tries to whisper. “Every trip! I so regret ever saying that to you.”
Enid smirks and calls out. “Well done girls, maybe next time.” There is giggling from the back of the car, Enid turns her head away from Wednesday as she tries not to join in.
Shortly afterwards Enid signals and pulls off the main road and slows the car, ahead of them is a metal archway bearing the sign ‘Nevermore Academy’.