Thirteen

After I stormed out on Jeff, I didn't really know what to do. The first thing I thought of was my brothers, the second being going to Slender's... Tim's office.

I decided to make my way to the living room, where I was hoping that Liu and Keith were still there. Once I entered the room, I saw Ben and Sally playing Mario Kart together, making jokes at each other to make them distracted. Liu and Keith were on the couch, sitting and talking with Natalie, Jane, and Toby. I gave everyone a short wave before sitting beside my brothers, grinning impishly.

"Guess what!" I exclaimed, looking at my brothers with a fake excitement.

"What." Keith responded, face blank.

"I want to talk to you guys. I feel like since we've been reunited, we haven't talked much." I smiled, laying myself along their legs.

"It's true, we haven't really talked much." Liu agreed, before his eyes went a shade darker. "Seriously sis, we haven't!" Sully exclaimed, reaching down to mess with my hair. I giggled as he did so, playfully swatting his hand away.

"I'm here too!" Keith jokingly exclaimed, leaning down as he began to tickle my sides.

"No! No, guys stop!" I squealed, kicking my legs, and wiggling my arms about. They continued for a little longer, before finally stopping. I gasped, yearning for more air. My brothers were laughing like the dorks they are. I moved onto a different seat, sitting comfortably.

"So, Mel.... Melanie's tickl…ticklish?" Toby grinned, stretching out the words. My face flushed as I slowly nodded. Natalie and Jane exclaimed a look, before bursting into laughter.

"What?" I asked them, as they looked at me.

"Not one other person in this place is ticklish, besides those two." Jane explained, before thrusting her thumb in the direction of Ben and Sally.

"Really?" I gasped, seeing everyone nod. I suddenly remembered something before grinning sheepishly. "Do you guys want to see the bandages?" I asked, immediately getting my brothers standing up, rushing over to me. I rolled up my sleeve, showing the bandage which was free of blood.

"Did you clean it?" Liu asked, concern present on his face.

"No. I didn't." I mumbled, before my face stretched into a grin. "Tim did." After those words left my lips, every mansion resident stared at me in shock.

"Oh no what is it?" I rushed out, shoving the heels of my palms into my face.

"Ti…. Tim never... and I.... I mean never…. Helps anyone.... with their wounds." Toby explained, but I only shrugged.

"I guess he's accepting the leadership role." Almost on cue, Tim and Brian entered the room, stopping their conversation as we all looked at them.

"Okay, what's going on?" Tim looked at us sceptically, before his eyes focused on me. "Ah, Melanie. Just the Woods' we were looking for!" He smiled, beckoning me over.

"What's up?" I asked him, raising an eyebrow. Before he could say anything though, Natalie interrupted.

"Hey Tim, did you know that Mel's ticklish?" She asked, making my face flush with embarrassment as Tim spluttered on his words for a second, the tips of his ears turning pink.

"You... you are?" He mumbled as I nodded sheepishly. He cleared his throat, going back to what he was originally going to say.

"So, you said you wanted to look around the office, yeah? Well, that's also what Brian and I want to do, so if you want to join us you can." Tim told me, Brian nodding from behind him.

"Uh... yeah sure I'll come, just give me a minute yeah?" I replied, Tim nodding, giving me my time.

"It was nice hanging out with you all." I smiled, "You two. Don't be a pair of idiots." I ended, giving an accusatory glance at my brothers.

"We won't!" They laughed in sync, giving me a mock salute. I smiled fondly at the pair before turning to follow Tim and Brian.

We made our ways up the stairs, stopping at the office. I looked over at Tim, elbowing him lightly. "It's your office now, you should do the honours."

Tim gave me a faint smile before shaking his head. "This was your idea. You should do it."

Brian looked between Tim and I before letting out a sigh. "Why don't I do it?" He asked us. I nodded, moving out of the way so that he was in front. Once Brian opened the door, the pair gasped. I only frowned, reaching up to touch my arm.

"Damn this is a mess." Tim frowned, Brian nodding in agreement.

"Yeah, I can see that." I mumbled, reaching up for my backpack. Wait- it's not there. "Oh god. Oh no." I frowned, searching the room to see if I had left it there.

"What is it?" Brian asked, looking over at me in concern.

"My backpack!" I shrieked, seeing it beside the bookshelf, torn to shreds. "No!" I ran over to it, picking it up and cradling it to my chest.

"Hey, Little Woods, it's okay. We can get you a new backpack." Tim whispered, a small frown on his face.

"Little Woods?" Brian inquired, raising an eyebrow as he looked between us.

"It's a nickname, Brian." Tim grinned cheekily at his best friend.

"Obviously." He shook his head, a laugh escaping his lips.

"You don't get it, Tim. That backpack was from my grandma. That backpack seemed like it was…. Magical. Whatever I wanted, whenever I needed it, it would appear." I explained, making the men shrug to each other.

"Can't get another one of those then." Brian joked, nudging my side.

"No, we definitely can't." I sulked, before putting the remains of the bag aside.

"You know what? I don't care! I'll search the bookcase, Tim, you search the desk, and Brian, you search the cabinets." I ordered, making my way to the bookcase as the other two nodded, going to their respective areas.

I searched the bookcase for a while, most books were in a language I didn't know. I put those books in a pile, but all of the books I found in English-not many- were in another pile. Not only were there books on the shelves, but there were also many bottles of different liquids. Some were named in English, some in different languages- some were in Latin, some were ancient Greek, and some were labelled with unknown symbols. I put each language in a different pile. I continued to look through the shelves, sorting its contents into the piles. Once all of the books were removed, small bags were revealed to be hidden behind the books.

"Uh…...guys? What do you think's in these bags?" I wondered, beckoning the boys over here. Tim shrugged, while Brian leant forward to grab a bag. He puled it open, looking inside.

"Lavender." He assessed, "These bags have general spell ingredients." Oh.

"Okay. I'll put them all in one place." I said, shooing the boys away.

They left, going back to what they were doing. When I looked at them, I saw that they had also put their discoveries into piles. I continued to sort the bags into a pile until I was completely finished.

"Okay boys, I'm all done!" I exclaimed, stretching my arms over my head. A pop was heard, as I sighed in satisfaction, lowering my arms back down.

"Yeah, me too." Brian sighed, looking down at all the papers. "I really hated that guy." He frowned, picking up a file.

"He has files on all of us. Including Mel and Keith, his brothers, an all of the enemies." Brian groaned, throwing the file back down.

Tim groaned, rubbing hi temple. "The stuff on this desk is crazy... I can't even decipher half of it." I moved over to Tim, sitting beside him. Brian sat on his other side, patting his back lightly.

"Hey, don't worry about it. We'll be able to get it all sorted together." Brian said, trying to comfort Tim, who only shook his head.

"I'm the leader, Brian. They're going to be reliant on me now. I can't fail them." Tim complained, looking defeated.

"Hey, you aren't failing them, and you won't. You're not doing this alone, are you?" I grinned, standing up. We all stood up, as I led them over to the bookcase.

"Since this is your office Tim, I assume you're going to make it personalised. If you want to stock the shelves with something- tell me. If not, I'll put them back. Or, we could just keep all of this under my bed where it's safe. I bet I could start translating them." I grinned, waiting for Tim to reply.

"You have them. Don't stress too much bout translating them though." He responded, making me nod.

"We should put the files back." Brian began, nodding over to the pile of files, "They're pretty important information." Tim nodded.

"Okay, Brian. You think you could start on that while Little Woods and I take al this too her room. Are there any storage boxes around?" Tim asked Brian, who got to work.

"Yeah, I think there's some spare storage boxes in Sally's room from her toys." Brian informed, as he began putting the files back in their place.

"Thanks, Brian. We'll be back soon with those boxes." I declared, as Tim and I left the room, ready for a trip to Sally's room.