Chapter Six, Summer Break

Sophie didn't mention her dream nor the mark to her friends for the rest of the ride. She kept telling herself that there's plenty of girls that have toy hippos with them and there may (and hopefully) be another Guardian nearby that girl with a toy hippo.

After another hour, the train started to slow down. The cool female voice came again, "Thank you for boarding this train. Please take all of your belongings and unboard the train in order. Have a wonderful day." Emma tugged at her sleeve, signaling Sophie to follow her.

Fred and George, who woke them up at 5 a.m., seemed to be happy to finally unboard. They gave some cards to Sophie, each of them had a beautiful picture of an animated girl on it. Sophie felt suspicious that the pictures seem to actually move, but then again, there is magic in the world.

Once they got off the train, George shoved a book-panel thing into Sophie's arms. It had a cute little deer on it, and it was playing with some birds and hampshires in an enchanted forest. Along with it was a matching pencil box of some birds fishing in a pond, with pencils that had puppies printed on the wrapping papers. Sophie, however, didn't waste time admiring it, for that she was scared that she would lose her friends. So she put them in her backpack and decided to admire it when she was at Emma's house.

Mr. and Mrs. Yearwood were standing at the exit of the train station. Mr. Yearwood was a tall, thin, strict-looking man, with the same brilliant brown hair all the Yearwood children had, his eyes, however, were green as a leaf. He still had some freckles though.

Mrs. Yearwood didn't have any freckles, but she had the blue eyes her children had. Her hair was a bright, shining blonde. She was not as tall as her husband, but either way, she's slender. Sophie realized how much Emma looked like her mother. For instance, her hair was lighter than the twins' dark, brown hair, and they had the same nose, the same lips, the same foreheads, almost the same everything. She wondered if anyone else told her that she looked like her mother. It is very obvious.

Even Mrs. Yearwood's voice even sounded like Emma's. "Hello there, you must be Emma's friend Sophie, she's told us so much about you," she smiled. "Er umm, hi Mrs. Yearwood, hi Mr. Yearwood." Sophie managed awkwardly.

Mr. Yearwood was busy tackling the twins, "Boys? You've grown weight?"

"Umm, OK…?" Sophie stammered nervously.

"Dad, stop it. As much as I appreciate it, you're going to tear the twins apart before I get a chance." Emma said while "tearing the twins apart" from a tickling race. Then she saw Sophie's face and said "You might as well get used to it now."

"Right, then. C'mon, your mom will make porridge." Mr. Yearwood said. "And bacon with fried eggs." he added hastily at the twins.

"If you say so." grinned Fred.

"And I'll keep my promise, Fred." Mrs. Yearwood was stuffing Emma into her coat.

"Who are you talking to? I'm Fred, not him." said George.

"Oh, sorry then, let's just go." Mrs. Yearwood apologized.

"Just kidding, I am Fred." Fred smiled.

"Oh, these two." Mr. Yearwood sighed.

~

At Emma's house, Mrs. Yearwood did indeed make porridge along with fried eggs and bacon. And they were indeed delicious, like the twins told Sophie. Sophie hadn't had a proper meal ever since her stepmother died, so she was starving. Even though she wanted to be polite while eating, it was hard to not stuff the food down.

When all plates were cleaned, Mrs. Yearwood cleaned them up and told them to go to their bedrooms and have a nice rest. Emma tugged at Sophie and whispered "You're sleeping in my room, and we never really sleep, we just play on our beds until mom comes and wakes us. I'll show you the way."

Emma's room was upstairs, under the attic. One of the walls had to have a large window in the middle of it, which sunlight poured into. A little fish tank with a few goldfish was there. Next to it was Emma's desk, which was piled with books that looked like they'd been through a blender. The wardrobe was next to the bed, which was in the corner next to the desk. It was a little cramped, and, to be honest, pretty messy; art works, clay, colored pencils, markers, art panels, notebooks, pencils, erasers, even a large ruler was stacked not so neatly in a cupboard. Some rubber bands, hair holders, and a comb were stuck in a pencil cube that was under the mirror (those kinds that have a desk underneath). Other comics and not torn-down books that are interesting were put rather carelessly on the bedside table. Newspapers, magazines and such were stored, as Sophie later found out, in an untidy locker-like cupboard. The bed was simple, and what seemed the only thing that was nice and neat.

Sophie shuffled over to Emma's desk, and, as what they do at school, dropped her backpack besides the desk. Then, out of her luggage, she fished out some pajamas and pulled one over her head. Then, she collapsed onto Emma's bed, and said, "You know, I didn't have much sleep yesterday." she yawned, "Plus the large amount I just ate… I really wonder how come you guys can't sleep after that."

Emma crashed down right beside her, "You know, we usually just don't feel like it; we can get plenty when we want to, just say 'I want to sleep for a while, please?' and you get to sleep. Our parents really want us to have as much sleep as possible." she pulled her blanket onto her head, "Anyways, what was that thing George gave to you?"

Sophie felt hot in the face. She hadn't looked at it properly yet, so she tiptoed over to her backpack and took out the notebook and the pencil box. She also took the cards out too, just so that she and Emma could play with them. She tiptoed back and said, "There. I have no idea what it's for, but hopefully something useful."

"Knowing George, I doubt that." Emma said crossly.

Sophie shrugged.

Emma, now having her attention on the notebook, was amazed. "This must have taken them ("You mean George." corrected Sophie) ages to make this! You know what Sophie, I think that George fancy you."

Sophie shrugged again. She never thought about someone about one year older than her liking her, but at the look of it, it could be true.

Emma opened the pencil box. They both gasped. Inside were a few dozens of pencils, each was wooden, but the wood had a wonderful forest-earth pattern. A box titled "erasers" was filled with cute mini erasers in all shapes. A ruler was lying at the bottom. And beside all of that, there was the most beautiful pen Sophie had ever seen. It also had a hidden compartment in the top part, with a note hidden in it. It read:

Sophie, I hope you find these in use; the scroll gave us these. It said that it's for you. And BTW, the notebook comes along with the pen (and the cards). Use the stuff to draw the persons and objects on the card and they will tell you the rest.

Hope you enjoy, George

Sophie opened her mouth. "What does it mean by 'they will tell me the rest'? And what in the world is George planning to do?"

Emma shrugged. "I don't know. But seriously, I think George might like you."

Sophie didn't speak. She decided to leave this for someday. Someday soon. Tomorrow. Hopefully. Probably.

~

Soon enough, it was the middle of summer. It was so hot outside that neither the Yearwoods nor Sophie bothered to go out. Except when they had to cut the grass in the yard. Sophie wondered why they even bothered; after all, they live far from the village, no one really comes to visit. Maybe they just want it nice and neat, Sophie guessed.

But still, even without the garden-cleaning job, Emma and Sophie still had their homework problems. The mountain of homework they got was still so much Sophie thought that she would only finish it when she finished school. The work included a stack of star charts, essays, drawings, and book reading. Sophie's pen is about to break, but they still didn't get the time to visit a shop yet. Fred and George didn't bother to do any work for some reason, but the small explosions coming from directly under Emma's room were found really disturbing.

And that is what led to this beautiful summer day. As usual, Emma and Sophie were catching up on their work, Sophie was working on a human body drawing chart (with labeled parts) and Emma was pouring over her Astronomy essay. Both were licking a popsicle that tasted like pickles on a stick.

"Arghh, I just can't get this right." Emma threw her pen down for the hundredth time this summer, "How do you solve a system of equations again? Why does this homework involve seventh grade math?"

" And you still don't know how to do it. Try looking on page a hundred-something. I wish we got our new books already, I'm sure that there's some information about human bodies in the new edition of biology textbooks. This is a lot harder than it looks. And grosser." Sophie also threw her pen down, and as a result it finally broke into two.

"Looks like the two ladies are having some trouble." and for the thousandth time, Fred and George came in without knocking.

"And when will you two finally learn how to have manners that are not like a five year old?" Sophie said without even looking up.

"Well, it's kind of urgent. Tonight is going to be our night." grinned George.

"What do you mean? By the way, did you guys already finish all your work? Is there a spell for it? Please teach me how." Emma looked close to fainting.

"Well, we didn't even bother to try that. We didn't even touch the papers, 'cause we know that we'll never be going back to NHH, so, therefore, we don't need to turn in our work."

Sophie dropped her popsicle.

"Stars above, why did you not tell us?! Do you have any idea how much time we spent on those work? For nothing?"

"Calm down there, Sophie." George cooed.

"We're sorry, okay? I thought you two had some better sense than just doing all the work. Anyways, Sophie, can you take out the scroll? We really need to get started on the puzzle thing." Fred did a half eyeroll.

"Sure." Sophie reached under her pillow and felt…

Nothing.

"It's gone!" she gasped.

"What?!"

"It is! No, wait, I think, I think… I LEFT IT IN NHH!!"

This time Emma really fainted.

"Sooo, now what?" Sophie tried for a smile.

She probably failed

Perhaps that is why Fred exploded.

"LEFT IT?!" he bellowed, "JUST SIMPLY LEFT IT? SOPHIE, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW LONG IT TOOK US TO GET THAT? HOW IN THE WORLD ARE WE SUPPOSED TO GET IT BACK NOW? WHAT IF THERE'S DEMONS AND OTHER STUFF IN NHH? WHAT IF IT IS WITH A TEACHER? HOW, HOW WILL WE GET IT BACK?"

"Calm down there, Fred." George said in alarm, "First of all, we didn't remind them to pack the scroll, and for some reason I believe that we, too, forgot about the scroll. Second, stop being a crybaby and let's find a way to get it back. Without making about one million people realize a piece of paper zooming over half the country. And without involving waking mom."

"But that's impossible!" complained Sophie, not hearing the last of the sentence.

"Well, let's face it." said Emma, "It's not im-POSSIBLE, only im-PROBABLE. Either we go back to NHH, hoping that the scroll is still where it is, or we just hope that the scroll is zooming fast enough and everyone is too dumb to realize it. And also, the scroll must not hit anyone on the way or it will stop coming back."

Sophie had a sudden vision of the scroll zooming through a village and hitting someone full in the face. But she also wondered how Emma knew about the scroll-stopping scenario.

"Well, that certainly IS improbable." agreed Fred, who (finally) has calmed down.

"Now, we just need to say the words "in the name of Light" altogether at the count of three, and concentrate hard on the scroll, while thinking of the scroll, well, zooming back to us. Not as easy as it looks, trust me, because we are going to stay in that situation for quite a bit of time, thanks to the fact that it is halfway across the world, and I suggest that we all sit down in a circle on the floor. That way, we'll be more comfortable and will concentrate better." said George, sending Sophie's head spinning.

So, while Fred and George started plotting the points where everyone will sit, Sophie and Emma sat on the window sill, which is wide enough to sleep and has a ton of stuffed toy animals on it. Sort of cute for someone who is entering adulthood to still keep all these toys.

"You think that this plan will really work?" Sophie whispered to Emma.

"Hopefully. Around ten percent chance." Emma whispered back, shrugging her shoulders.

"Won't your parents hear it when we say in the name of whatcha-call-it?"

"Well, from what it looks like, no. This door is sound proof. Hopefully."

"I feel so much more convinced."

"And there we go." Fred patted his hands, "Hopefully that will work. Unfortunately, we do not have a plan B."

"Oh no." groaned Sophie, "I hate it when it's 'hopefully' and there is no plan B that goes with it."

~

So that's how it is. All four of them, sitting peacefully on the floor, like they are playing some weird sort of Think Peacefully type of game. Sophie half expected someone to start chanting "om" while meditating. With Fred (or is it George?) counting "1, 2, 3!" and then everyone, either whispering or normally saying, "in the name of Light."

Silence.

Sophie tried her best to not let thoughts like "this is SOOOOO stupid" "why are we doing this again?" and "I rather eat out the toilet, just to see which one is stupider" float around in her mind, in case that it will do anything to the Mission Operation: Get Back the Scroll. Which was what Emma called it (Sophie had a suspicion that she read too many comic books).

More Silence.

More waiting.

Until…

BONG.

"What was that?" said Emma in alarm. Ever since the "cold Emma that is different" fisco, her senses seemed to become sharper than a usual person.

"From what it looks like," Sophie peered through the window that had an extraordinary amount of bird poop on it, "It seems to be something like a paper…"

"...the scroll!" they said altogether.

"It actually worked!" exclaimed Emma.

"Well, now I feel extremely sorry for you guys, I did have a rather large melt down, didn't I?' apologized Fred.

"It's OK, bro." George squeezed his way to the window (everyone had automatically ran to the rather tiny window to see for themselves if the scroll really had come back; ironic, thinking of how large and roomy the window sill is), "Right now, let's go down and get that little sleeping beauty."

They all ran down stairs, out the front door, and around to the corner in the front garden, while accidentally knocking over Mrs. Yearwood.

"Slow down there, kids!" she shouted behind their back.

It appears that the scroll had landed in between bushes of red roses, one of Mrs. Yearwood's favorite possessions that are left from her mother.

"Well, mom would be steaming mad if she found out what happened here." whimpered Emma. And then she brightened up, "But hopefully, she could just mistake it as a seagull landed here."

Well, if only a seagull is dumb enough to land in a bush of roses with prickes on it, thought Sophie.

With trembling hands, Sophie picked up the scroll and carefully put it in her "secret" pocket in the very inside of her jacket. Just in case it falls out.

And then they ran back upstairs, knocking Mrs. Yearwood over again.

"Didn't I just say slow down?" she wondered out loud.

"Sorry mom, we're kind of in a hurry!" called back Fred.

They left Mrs. Yearwood muttering to herself about how children always seemed to be in a rush.