Official Chapter Sixth - Sneak-Peek

It was a few hours later, evening, when our little heroine settled down in her bedroom. The party had crashed - quite simply, quite so - when the girl dropped her bomb. After that, the boy and his mother left, quite indignantly, and Mother and Father and Eddy and - she a bit, too! - Ksenia swore at her and got very mad about everything and anything till the little rebel went to bed and the parents had breathed a sigh of relief.

But the girl herself knew that she'd done well, and thanked herself for it as she fell asleep.

The next morning, however, when the girl awoke, everybody still seemed a bit mad at Wen, and she grumbled while she ate her breakfast. But then, Father split his lip on his mug, and blood came pouring out, and while he clutched a tissue to his mouth, nursing it, to break the silence Mother said -

"Mary Sue, my friend from college, has invited our family to go to a - ah, luncheon - with them by the lake today at eleven, before the sun hangs right up and burns our heads. I have been thinking of leaving Blodwena at home -" the woman motioned for her child - "But, if she behaves, she may come."

And that got Wen madder than ever!

She knew that the lake was beside the house - only a kilometre away, for one only had to cross three small dune-shaped hills to get to the lake, and then there was a little bridge, opening up to a wide island at the end of which was open sea. There was no harbour, and so, in violent storms, it was known for the waves to reach over the bridge and gulp at the hills, creating a bit of a - ah, tsunami (?)... no, but it was quite serious.

Wen had made up her mind to stay home and then, after a nice half hour of being at home on her own, she would sneak outside on her scooter and ride down to the lake and watch the party from a little hill. Yes.

"No, thank you, I most certainly will not go with you!"

And you may now think that - how could the parents and even Ksenia and Eddy not suspect a thing?; well, Eddy did suspect a smidge, but the others were very excited to go down to meet Mary Sue's family. But Eddy, being a natural introvert (the only one in the family), he didn't quite feel like going either. So he decided to stay.

"No, my dear friend, please go!" Wen begged Eddy, and that was when he began to suspect. But he only nodded curtly and left, for he thought - what could he do? And anyway, his sister ought to have some fun. Of course, he was a bit upset that she'd let the guests just go, in that stupid manner, but what - should one really take everything to the heart? And - Eddy did not think so.

So, the merry family (well, not the whole one!) walked out the door, chattering, and the last Wen saw of the procession was Ksenia, in her flowery dress and unlevel hair hanging down loosely. Now that she had looked at her hairdo in a new light, she positively hated it - but what could one do? She asked herself this, and while the five walked up and down the dune-shaped hills, she begged -

"Please, I cannot go to the luncheon like this! Cannot I just run down to the village and get my hair cut a bit more so that at least I look a bit more formal?!"

"Have you learned this word just today, babe? I've not heard you use it before, and you always speak your mind out..."

Ksenia laughed. "Oh, well, I am an extrovert!"

"What was that?" Father asked, curiously. "Another word learned today?"

"How do you know all this? And, yes, today morning Eddy got me up on a quiz on the internet and turns out I'm an introvert. I do not know what Wen is, though..."

"Perhaps an ambivert?" Eddy snickered. "I'm an introvert."

Ksenia was now confused, but she shut up her mouth and looked behind. A few hills stretched out to the South, and amongst the grass were seen a few thatched houses. Behind those, was Wen's.

Wen, meanwhile, was putting on a batik dress that she had lent from her sister. It was a bit too large, so she stuck pins to the very bottom, and rolled up a bit of the dress, with the ruffles still dangling down. If one looked carefully, they could see the multi-coloured pins that stuck down to the hem of the dress, but it was still lovely to not a sharp eye.

Then, Wen braided her hair into one short, thick braid and whilst she waited for half an hour to pass she watched the television. There was something up about a shark attack, and soon, the soon-to-be eleven-year-old was cuddling her largest toy bear, being about half a meter long. She felt safe in the arms of one of her favourite companions, and she clenched her jaws and her eyes almost popped out of their sockets when an enormous "tiger shark" jumped up onto an unaware boat and gobbled it up - rather, it first jumped onboard and ate the woman and the baby and then cut her teeth against the hairy man before it sizzled back to the water. So peculiar! - and it did not even die...

But then, just as thetiger shark was jumping back into the water, suddenly there was seen something much larger - "half a skyscraper," one of the reporters had said. "...It is a new species, and we believe that there is only one sharp like this in the whole of Planet Earth. But, where could it have come from? Scientists have been taking pictures and thinking of -"

Wen let out a moan, and even tighter she hugged BoBo.

Then, she checked the time, and almost half an hour had passed! So, she jumped to her feet, forgot about the "Great Tube" and, putting on her boots, she zipped them up and run down the stairs and out the door.

For a good twenty minutes yet she jogged, and soon found herself over the pair of thatched houses, over the three hills, and behind a lonely tree which opened up to a clear view of the lake, of the bridge over the lake, and of Mary Sue and her family and Mother and hers sitting and eating rapidly.

In the West, was the bridge stretching out a little pathway that led to the island, and the girl shuddered at the sight of the sea behind her shoulders, and of the enormous shark. And that was when she had remember the "Great Tube" again, though she obviously did not know that it was called that just then, and the full-of-malice tiger shark.

Mary Sue's family consisted of, Wen saw, as she looked back from the tree and over at the two familes - the father, and a little girl with red hair and blue eyes sitting all by herself, away from Eddy and Ksenia, on the sloping part of the hill that went down to the water. She frowned down at her reflection, and there was misery seen in her eyes.

She wasn't very pretty, frankly, with a snub nose, very big eyes, a wide mouth, and thick brows... but there was something delicate about the ten-year-old, and Wen suddenly had an urge to run and say hi to the girl.

Well, she did - simply, she walked over the bridge and down to the party, and bowed to Mary Sue in a comical way, and said -

"Please, excuse my being late! I wanted to go with the rest of my family, but I had decided to make you and your family a cake. Sadly, it burned... but, I guess, I better learn next time!"

And that was not quite a whole lie - for the girl had thought of baking a pie, but not for Mary Sue's family, a week back.

Mary Sue and her husband laughed merrily and said that it was fine, and then, Wen went to the red-haired girl.

"Hi, there. I am the youngest child in the family, and my name is Blodwena, but Wen for short. I am almost eleven."

The girl smiled shyly. "Uh... My name is Valentine, or Vally... and I am ten. Ten years old. Like you, I imagine
..." she then smiled a very toothy smile, and her eyes lit up like two stars. But, suddenly finding the need to speak once again, she mouthed into Wen' ear - "Of course, your brother and sister seem nice, but you see - I am not one to talk to people older than me.... I get easily scared."