Based on what I'd heard, I'd expected Miss Peregrine's wards to be these super-impressive badass awesome-looking warriors. I was taken aback at the fact that they were just normal-looking kids. (or as normal as peculiar can get, anyway) There were nine total, ranging in age from a six-or-seven-year-old little blonde girl to Millard, who, based on his height and build, was most likely a couple years older than myself. They had a wide range of clothing too; most of them wore modern or relatively-modern clothes, but the others wore vintage clothes from probably close to the time period we were in at that moment.

I knew who Raymond's brother was as soon as I saw him; not only did both boys have the same blond hair, sharp nose, and milky skin tone, but he, too, was dressed head-to-toe in formal wear; a black-and-white 3-piece tux, top hat,- which, I'd like to add, made him look extremely short- and a monocle.

"Hi!" Charlie waved.

"Hello!" Said a little brown-haired girl with heavy metal shoes.

"You must be Ricky and Charlie." Said a maybe-fifteen-year-old boy; bees spewed out of his mouth as he spoke. Being allergic to bees, I backed up a little.

A pudgy, blond boy of about twelve or thirteen addressed me directly. "They told us about your peculiarity."

"See, Millard?" A stocky girl with braces and oh-my-freaking-gosh biceps turned to the empty space where Millard's clothes were hovering. "I told you they would make it!"

"Allow me to introduce myself." Raymond's brother stepped forward, sticking his hand out for me to shake with a friendly smile on his face. "Horace Somnusson."

I shook his hand. "Hey man."

When we parted, Horace turned his gaze to Raymond and his smile disappeared. "Raymond! What are you taking a trip to Las Vegas?" He shook his head. "How is it that even after all these years your wardrobe is still rubbish?"

Raymond's face was cold and indifferent- almost hostile. "How is it that you still think you can pull off that silly hat?"

Horace straightened the brim of his hat. "Perhaps if you tried it, you wouldn't look like a pimp!"

"Stop it! Both of you!" Emma stepped between the arguing brothers.

Both boys pursed their lips and turned with their backs towards each other.

After that, the other children all introduced themselves: Bronwyn, Olive, Claire, Hugh, Enoch, I wasn't sure if I would remember them all.

"Cake time!" Came a high, sing-song voice accompanied by a floating cake with white icing and blue frosting ribbons and lettering; happy birthday, Sebasten!

Sebasten's eyes lit up and a grin appeared on his face.

Parading into the dining room, we all sang happy birthday and Emma lit a finger for Sebasten to blow out.

"Happy hundredth, mate." The blond, pudgy boy, whose name I thought was Enoch, gave Sebasten a friendly punch in the shoulder.

"Thanks." The birthday boy said.

I frowned. "Hey how come he can say you're a hundred but I can't?"

"Because he's older than me."

I turned to Jacob. "I thought you said they were in the present."

"I did." He nodded. Gesturing to his friends, he continued, "their original loop was in 1940, see, but when the ymbrynes collapsed the loop at the wights fortress- that's what made it explode like Janie said- their ages were reset, so they can live in the present."

"How do you think Horace can be my older brother and have been born in the present and also be physically younger than I?" Raymond asked.

"Sorry, I guess I didn't really think about that." I said.

"Never mind that!" Exclaimed the little girl with the metal shoes and brown hair. "Let's have cake!"

The stocky girl- who's name, I remembered, was Bronwyn- chuckled and shook her head. "I don't think Miss P would like us having cake before breakfast."

"But Miss P's not here!" The younger girl whined.

"Where is she, anyway?" Charlie looked around.

"She's back in the present." Emma explained. "She doesn't fancy the cold much."

"I, for one, agree with Bronwyn." Raymond cut in. "None of us has had breakfast; we should eat first."

"But-but-but-but-" Janie whined.

"No buts." Emma picked the cake off the table. "We have cake after breakfast."

"Thank you, Miss Bloom." We all turned to see Miss Cardinal standing in the doorway of the dining room. "Friends, I am glad you were able to return!" She gave a special smile to Charlie and I. "Children, you know what to do."

With that, Miss Cardinal's peculiars hurried to the kitchen followed by their bird, leaving the rest of us standing awkwardly around the table.

"They don't want us helping because we're their guests." Bronwyn assured Charlie and I. "Believe me: we've tried to."

"You mean you've tried to." Enoch said to her.

I nodded, then turned to Raymond's brother, Horace, who currently seemed very interested in his cuticles.

"Since you and Raymond are brothers, does that mean y'all have the same peculiarity?" I asked him.

He met my eyes and scoffed. "No. And good thing, too; our last name is the only thing I could handle sharing with that thick-headed bastard."

"Why are you so mean to him?" Charlie asked.

"Because he's, to put it plainly, a huge pain in the ass." The younger (or I guess older?) boy said. "He's whiny, stubborn, and so ignorant as to think that nothing he does could possibly do anything to embarrass our family. And when we were young, our parents didn't care one bit; it was always 'Raymond this', 'Raymond that', 'Horace who?'" He stamped his foot, face red with anger.

"Calm down, Horace." Millard's voice sounded from behind the blond, but his consolation came too late; Horace was already ranting about all the stupid things his brother had done.

"I must apologize; he's rarely like this." Emma informed my sister and I.

"... And one time, he broke Great-Gran's urn, and I got in trouble for it! And another time, at a party, I was supposed to watch him and the little rat ran off! Couldn't find him 'til the entire place emptied out and then..." Horace was ranting as Millard led him out of the room.

"Typical Horace." Raymond walked in from the kitchen, arms crossed. "Don't listen to him; he thinks I'm the one who gets away with things when Mum and Dad believed every word he ever said."

"Stop it!" The little blonde girl yelled, covering her ears. "Horace ain't bad in the least!"

"Oh yeah?" Raymond snapped at her. "Allow me to show you!" He scrunched up his face with concentration.

The little blonde girl lowered her hands and her bottom lip trembled like she was about to cry; Raymond must've been showing her a memory.

"N-no." She whimpered. "These are fake; he wouldn't do that."

"Leave her alone!" Bronwyn clutched the little girl's shoulders.

Raymond relaxed his face.

Then, Janie came out and slid a bowl of fruit onto the table. "What are you guys talking about?" She asked.

"How Raymond's a big fat liar!" The little blonde girl a claimed before running away- I found out later that she'd gone to find Horace.

"No he's not!" Janie screamed at her as she bolted out of the room.

There was a thick, uncomfortable silence that followed, during which Miss Cardinal's other peculiars returned from the kitchen carrying plates of pancakes, bacon, biscuits, and hash browns, and bowls of grits, jam, and gravy, and pitchers of syrup, water, milk, and orange juice. It was different silverware than the ones they used that one time Charlie and I had dinner here; these were China, silver, and intricately molded crystal glass; I guessed they reserved this set for special occasions.

"Well shall we sit?" Emma broke the silence.

The rest of us took our seats.

"I'm getting sick of how much those two bicker!" Bronwyn exclaimed.

"I don't even get why they're fighting!" Hugh said from behind a bee net. "My brothers and I all went round and round like that, but we always joked about it; there was never any hostility. I tracked them down last Spring and we get together every few weeks just to josh around!"

"Maybe it's just a rich people thing." Charlie said. "I mean, unless they ain't rich."

"They're rich." Riley confirmed.

Jacob looked slightly more uncomfortable for just a moment.

"I just don't understand it." Bronwyn sighed. "They're brothers; they should stand by each other at all costs."

"True, but they ain't you and Victor." Enoch said, reaching for some more bacon. "Neither of them would mourn the other for a second if he died."

"You don't know that!" Bronwyn huffed. "I bet they really do care about each other, but have been away from each other for so long they've let the good stuff slip away so all that's left now is hate; now that they've reunited, maybe it'll all come back to them."

"You're living in a fairytale." Enoch's tone sounded more like 'you're a mother-fudging idiot.'

"I'd like to take this opportunity to remind you that I can snap your neck with two fingers." Bronwyn's ears were bright red.

"So can Sebasten." Enoch crossed his arms. "I'll get him to stop you. You know, if you even had the guts to attack."

"Hey leave me outta this!" Sebasten said with a chunk of pancake in his mouth.

"C'mon, guys!" The little girl with metal shoes whined. "Stop fighting!"

"Olive's right." Jacob said after swallowing a piece of bacon. "We can't keep fighting like this."

"I wholly agree with you, but Raymond and Horace are the ones who've got us fighting, and they're never going to stop." Riley responded.

"For their sake as well as ours, I hope they do." Miss Cardinal said, standing in the doorway with Janie, Millard, Horace, and the little blonde girl. The five of them took a seat, the little blonde girl glaring at Janie; even though I couldn't see her, I could tell Janie was glaring back at her.

__________________________

Sorry that took so long

Love ya!

CC