Chapter 7

Wendy’s mother stayed on the patio talking with us for ages and I could see that she was looking at me strangely. “Ella, sweetie. What happened to your head?” Darcy asked. “Mom.” Wendy said. “It’s alright. I just had an accident at home. I slipped in the bathroom and hit my head on the basin.” I said. “Ouch. That must have hurt.” She said. “Yeah. It did. But, it doesn’t anymore.” I said. “That’s good.” Darcy said. “So, you live with your mother and father, don’t you?” Wendy asked. “Marilyn and Jack. Yeah.” I said. “Marilyn and Jack?” She said, looking at me weird. “My mom and stepdad.” I said. “You call your mother by her first name?” Darcy asked. “We’re not that close.” I said. “I’m sorry to hear that.” She said. “It is what it is.” I said, looking back at the ground, not wanting to see the pity in their eyes which I undoubtedly knew they were giving me. I glanced over at the twins again and they were still sitting there in the same positions. They hadn’t moved an inch. “Oh, you’d know the boys from school.” Darcy said, noticing me glance over. “Yeah.” I said. “Well, are you friends? Maybe I can invite them to dinner as well.” Darcy said. “No!” I said, a little too quickly and enthusiastically. But it made Darcy stop immediately. “I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to snap like that.” I said, looking at Wendy. “It’s alright. Mom doesn’t know about what’s going on at school.” Wendy said. “What is it?” Darcy asked. “The twins are just paying me a lot more attention than I actually like. I’ve asked them to leave me alone but they won’t.” I said. “Oh. Okay. Well, I won’t invite them to dinner.” She said, seeming completely fine with that explanation. But I saw Wendy and Darcy looking at each other, almost the same way I saw Wendy and Ingrid looking at each other. Like they were having a conversation without saying anything to each other. “What are they doing?” I asked Ava. “It’s alright. They’ll talk to you again in a minute.” She said. Ava was right. It was over pretty quickly but Wendy and Darcy noticed the strange look on my face and they just brushed it off, like it was nothing important. When dinner was ready we went to the dining room and everything looked so beautiful. Even just the way the table was set. I didn’t think people actually sat down and ate dinner together as a family. I thought that was something made up on TV. As we were just sitting down a big hulking man in a suit came into the room and sat at the head of the table. He looked really intimidating and very strong with his muscles likely to bust his suit. That made me wonder what the hell they were feeding the men in this town. So many of them were massive. A lot bigger than I had ever seen before. Especially the teenage boys. “Oh, who do we have here?” He asked as he saw me sitting at the table. “Dad, this is Ella. Ella, this is my dad David. And you can call him David.” Wendy said. “It’s nice to meet you.” I said. “It’s nice to meet you too. I heard that there was going to be a new girl in town. I hope Wendy is making this transition for you easy.” David said. “She is. She’s been very nice to me.” I said. “That’s good. How do you like Alaska so far?” He asked. “It’s definitely a change.” I said. “I think everyone says that when they move here.” He said. “Were you guys born in Alaska?” I asked. “No. We are originally from Montana.” He said. And I looked at him, really intrigued. “Really? I would love to live in Montana.” I said. “Why?” Wendy asked, skeptically. “Are you kidding? I’d get myself a ranch. Raise horses or something out there. It would be really peaceful. Just something that I think would be a good life.” I explained. I started to feel a little embarrassed as I felt them all staring at me, but none of them were looking at me like I was crazy. Darcy actually had a smile on her face. “That sounds like the perfect way to grow up and to raise a family.” Darcy said. And I smiled. They didn’t think I was crazy. That’s good. It was a step in the right direction. “I couldn’t help but notice that jacket you were wearing when you got here. It seems a little worn and torn.” Darcy said. “Oh, yeah. I’m trying to save money at the moment. Hopefully I’ll get enough before winter hits so I can buy some new clothes.” I said. “Don’t your parents buy you clothes?” David asked. “Well, my mother doesn’t really earn that much and my stepdad doesn’t have a job. So, I work at the diner in town.” I said. “Self sufficient. There’s nothing wrong with that. Maybe you can teach Wendy a thing or two.” David said. And I saw Wendy giving him an evil look but he just started laughing. “How about this instead. Wendy, you said that you were going to clean out your wardrobe this weekend. Why don’t you do that tonight while Ella is here and whatever clothes you are going to throw out, you can give to Ella. Most of them haven’t even been worn.” Darcy said. “Oh no. I can’t accept that.” I said. “Of course you can. I would much rather see you wear those clothes than throw them out.” Wendy said. “Are you sure?” I asked. “Positive.” She said. She looked too excited to give me these clothes. I didn’t know why she was so eager for me to wear her hand-me-downs, but I guess if they didn’t have a problem with it then I shouldn’t either. I had a feeling that they were going to be really nice clothes. I would have to try and explain that to Marilyn. It’s a good thing she doesn’t really pay too much attention to me or anything I do. I did have a feeling that she was going to notice me wearing nice clothes though. After dinner Wendy took me up to her room and I stopped in the doorway. There was a massive queen size bed in the middle of her massive bedroom. It was done up so perfectly with the best looking furniture and everything just looked so perfect. It was the most beautiful room I had ever seen. She had a bathroom attached to her room as well and the wardrobe was huge. She took me straight to the wardrobe and turned the light on and I was once again speechless. It was a wardrobe done up for a princess. “Are you sure you want me to have these clothes?” I asked again, very hesitantly. “Absolutely. I’ve been meaning to clean out this room for ages.” She said. “Everything in here looks so new and beautiful.” I said, starting to look away. I saw Wendy looking at me like she was trying to figure me out. She obviously knew by now that I didn’t have much. I had to work just to buy my own clothes. My parents didn’t give me anything. I hope they believed me when I told them about Marilyn not earning enough. Wendy turned her music on and we started going through her wardrobe. Luckily, we were close to the same size, so her clothes fit me. But we started having a little fun with it. We were both trying things on and having a little fashion show. I was a little too embarrassed to walk like I was in a fashion show but Wendy would show me and I started to loosen up as the night went on. I was actually having a really good time. I was even amazed at how I could relax so much in front of Wendy. It was great and I loved it. We were parading the clothes around the wardrobe and Wendy would tell me what looked great on me and what didn’t so the ones that looked great, she’d pack into suitcases for me and the ones that didn’t, she said that she would throw out unless I wanted them. But I was going with her intuition on this. I didn’t know what good clothes really were. I’d never owned any. By the time we were finished I had three massive suitcases full of clothes and Wendy easily picked two of them up, one in each hand, while I was struggling with just one of them. We took them downstairs but we stopped at the bottom of the stairs and I saw Darcy and David in the kitchen drinking wine with another couple. “Oh. Mr. and Mrs. Blackwood.” Wendy said, surprised. “Hello Wendy.” Mrs. Blackwood said. “I want you to meet my new friend. This is Ella Winters.” Wendy said. “Ella.” Mr. Blackwood said, a little abruptly. “It’s nice to meet you.” I said. “Mr. And Mrs. Blackwood live next door. They’re the twins’ parents.” Wendy said. “Oh.” I said, softly. “You’ve met the twins?” Mrs. Blackwood said. “Yeah. We’ve met.” I said, faking a smile of sorts. I think they could tell that I was a little uncomfortable talking about it. I didn’t want to talk about the twins in case I said something that I was going to regret. I definitely didn’t want to tell them that I wanted their boys to stay the hell away from me because they were giving me too much unwanted attention. “Well, I’m going to drive Ella home now.” Wendy said. “Alright. Be safe on the road.” Darcy said. “I will.” Wendy said, picking up the bags again. “Ella. It was so nice to meet you.” Mr. Blackwood said, walking forward and shaking my hand. He looked into my eyes, really intently, like there was something else going on. It seemed a little creepy to me. The way that he was looking at me. His wife was standing right there and he didn’t seem to care at all. My heart started racing a little faster and almost like he could tell that I was getting anxious, he let go of my hand and took a step back. “It was really nice meeting you as well.” I said. I picked up my suitcase and I left the house as well, taking it down to Wendy’s car and putting it in the backseat. I looked over at the house and again, I saw the twins looking out the window, watching Wendy and I get into her car.