Anyway

"You know what, this is getting tiring" said Ollie as he sighed deeply and he walked around the room, as he placed an empty bowl on the ground as the roof was leaking.

"Who knew that we would end up here, trying to stop the house from flooding" said Ollie as he sighed, they had been here this entire time, trying to stop one leak, as another one just popped up, it was just so annoying.

"Apart from that, it doesn't look like the rain will stop soon at all" said Matt as he looked up and he saw another leak as water dropped on his nose from above.

"Yes, if this rain doesn't clear up soon, we won't be going anywhere at all" said Ollie as never in his life, had he experienced having to walk around aimlessly, trying to stop the leaks.

"Just as I feared" said Curtis to himself.

"Where are the girls anyway, I wonder if their room is leaking as well?" asked Ollie.

"Well they went to the stables" said Matt.

"Wait, you can hear them right?" asked Ollie as he looked at Matt.

"Well not really, I can't hear them right now, at least not over the sound of the rain" said Matt as the sound of the rain beating heavily on the roof stopped him for being able to hear anything else.

"What a shame" said Ollie.

"Wait, don't your ears hurt? Because I have normal ears, and the rain is pretty loud" said Ollie.

"Well it is very loud, but I am trying to ignore it, or at least not let it get to me" said Matt.

"I feel for you dude" said Ollie as he could not even begin to imagine how hard it was to do that, while also still trying to hear what he was saying and still keeping calm.

Matt just smiled as he was used to it, believe him he was, the rain was nothing compared to the sound of all his siblings when they all decided to talk at the same time, then he would be unable to think.

"This is nothing compared to the amount of noise my siblings make when they want to get noisy" said Matt.

"Really?" asked Ollie in surprise.

"Yes, they can get very loud, so loud that I can't even hear myself think sometimes" said Matt.

"Wait, how many siblings do you have Matt?" asked Ollie as he did not know that, he had thought that Matt was an only child, just like the rest of them, Ollie did not have any siblings, so he was pretty much used to having silence and quiet… all the time, which he found very boring.

"Nine" said Matt.

"Wait, a minute?? You have nine siblings??? Nine??" asked Ollie in surprise as he could not believe this, who had nine siblings??

"Yes nine" said Matt as he laughed, he found Ollie's reaction funny.

"I have four brothers and five sisters" said Matt as he smiled.

"Wait, wait, you mean that you are ten children in your family?" asked Ollie in surprise.

"Yes, pretty much" said Matt.

"There's me, Evie, Levi, Kaylee, Ellie, Cellie, Mark, Edward, Frankie and Noey" said Matt.

"Wow, this is… surprising" said Ollie as he still looked very surprised, Matt had a big family, a very big family, Ollie could only imagine the kind of noise that ten children would make.

"Wait, what's the age gap?" asked Ollie as he found Matt's family dynamic interesting.

"Well I'm 18, Evie is turning 15, Levi is 13, Kaylee is 11, the twins are 9" said Matt as he was cut off.

"Wait, you have twins in your family?" asked Ollie.

"Well yes, Ellie and Cellie are twins" said Matt as he explained.

"You mean identical twins?" asked Ollie.

"Well no, they are not identical, Ellie was born first and then Cellie followed, Ellie is outspoken and loud, while Cellie is the actually only quiet one in our family" said Matt as he explained.

"Okay, okay" said Ollie as he found this all so cool.

"Yes, and then Mark is 8, Edward is 7, Frankie is 6, and little Noey Is 3" said Matt as he smiled.

"So Noey is your baby brother" said Ollie.

"Yes, he is" said Matt as he smiled, which reminds him that he really missed his siblings, no matter how annoying they could be.

"So how does it feel to be part of such a big family?" asked Ollie.

"I mean, it's good, there is never a dull moment, everyone always has something to say" said Matt as he smiled.

"Although it is annoying being the oldest, and well when your younger siblings annoy you, it's just so annoying, especially my little sister Evie, she can… really annoy you…" said Matt as he laughed and he shook his head as Ollie laughed as well, that sounded very funny.

"I would love to meet your siblings" said Ollie as they all sounded like quite the characters.

"Sure, maybe when all this is settled you can" said Matt as he laughed and Ollie smiled.

"Hey Curtis, you have been very quiet" said Ollie as he looked at Curtis.

"I've been thinking" said replied Curtis.

"About what?" asked Matt as he looked at Curtis.

"On what we are going to do" said Curtis.

"And that is?" asked Matt.

"Well I don't know yet exactly, but this rain has to stop first" said Curtis as Matt nodded his head, the rain had to stop first.

…

Alina looked at Ivor, and then at Annie, Maddie, Matt, Ollie and Curtis, they were having dinner together, but they were all just so quiet that she wondered what was wrong, it was so quiet that she could hear the rain as it dropped on the roof.

And yes, it was still raining, and this surprised Alina, it never rained, never, but well now, it decided to rain, and it did not seem like it was stopping anytime soon, although the rain had reduced to little showers that did not stop at all.

"So… why is everyone so quiet?" asked Alina as she could not take the silence at all.

"Did something happen?" asked Alina as she looked at Ivor, and then she looked at Curtis.

"Nothing happened Alina" said Curtis as he replied as Alina did not believe him at all, there was something off here, the atmosphere was heavy, and Alina knew that.

"I don't believe that" said Alina as she looked at Ivor as he cleared his throat, he knew that Alina would not let this go.

"I believe that ever since our discussion yesterday our guests have been… uncomfortable" said Ivor as everyone turned to look at him and Annie just sighed silently.

"That is not true at all" replied Curtis plainly.

"I know that it is" said Ivor.

"But nevertheless, we are responsible people here, and if there was something I said during our discussion yesterday that offended you, please forgive me, I spoke idly, not stopping to consider that you all have your reasons for your beliefs, so please forgive me" said Ivor as Alina smiled, now that was better.

"Do not worry Ivor, you did not offend us at all" said Curtis as he replied.

"Well I do not think that Annie, and the rest seem to think so" said Ivor as Annie looked at him, could he tell that she was upset??

"Don't you think so?" asked Ivor as he looked at Annie.

"Well no, I'm not offended not at all" said Annie as she smiled and she shook her head.

"We are all just disappointed that it's still raining, and we haven't been able to go yet" said Maddie as she chipped in.

"Ahh I see" said Ivor.

"Yes" said Curtis.

"Well, I still apologize" said Ivor as he smiled.

"Apology accepted" said Curtis as he smiled.

"Yes, we are all not offended at all" said Ollie as he smiled.

"We are just disappointed that it is still raining" said Ollie as he sighed, today was just… not a very good day for them.

"Well there is no need for you to worry, you all are more than welcome to stay here until the rain stops" said Ivor.

"Yes, you guys can stay here" said Alina as she smiled.

"Thank you for your hospitality" said Curtis as he gave a small smile.

"No need to thank us" said Ivor as she smiled.

"Yayy, you guys get to stay here longer" said Alina as she smiled, she could not lie that she was not happy that they would still be staying.

"Yes… we do" said Annie as she forced a smile, the thought of them spending one more night here did not make Annie happy at all, they were moving further and further away from their schedule, and the mere though made her scared, they did not have much time, they did not have any time at all to waste.