enchanted
chapter 01, daisies, sunflower's and the head teacher's office.

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1919
Small Heath, Birmingham

Being the eldest child, you're supposed to be the role model for you younger siblings but not Rory. No, instead she was the bad influence. Being John Shelby's daughter she was cheeky. All her teacher would say one of three things;

"You're definitely your fathers daughter."

Or,

"You're definitely a Shelby."

Or even sometimes, "You look just like your mum." Not knowing what her mum looked like she would look confused but smile nevertheless.

One thing the girl was terrible at was being on time.

"Aurora," John warned her for the third time within half an hour. The girl didn't move.

John sighed heavily at the lack of movement from his daughter, her chest still rising and falling at a steady pace even with his tapping, shouting and opening the curtains, "Aurora Martha Elizabeth Shelby if you do not move out of your bed in the next five minutes you are grounded."

Once again the girl give any signs that she was going to get up with the next few minutes. John sighed once again before going downstairs, Rory smirking thinking she'd won until the front door slammed shut and the house going quiet. Next thing she knew Polly was standing at the foot of her bed, Finn and Freya beside her with a glass of water.

"I know you're awake, Rory," Polly huffed. "If you don't get up then Finn will throw water over you."

Still no movement, the girl calling her aunt's bluff.

She quickly learned that she made the wrong decision as cold water was thrown over her face making she jumped up with a gasp. "I'm awake."

"You're late," her dad sighed.

"Get up, get dressed and go to school," Polly told her sternly.

"Who's taking me?" she asked as she swung her legs over the side of the bed. "Please say Finn and Freya," she mumbled repeatedly.

"Finn and Freya, now hurry up," Polly shouted from the bottom of the stairs. As soon as the girl heard Finn's name she ran into the bathroom to get ready for school.

Within a matter of minutes the girl was dressed and was downstairs plucking the bowl of cereal from Freya's hand as she walked into the kitchen, "Where is everyone?"

"Aunt Pol's gone to Church and your dad's taken the rest of your siblings to school," Finn replied as he sat down.

"How late am I?" she asked before looking up Finn. "Never mind you can't tell the time."

"Yes I can!" he protested.

Rory rolled her eyes, "How late am I then?"

"Very," he answered smugly with a smirk earning a flick of milk splattered over his face from Rory's spoon.

"Frey, what time is it and where's Lottie?" the blonde turned to her aunt, ignoring Finn's complaints about being covered in milk.

"Lottie is still in bed and it is eight forty-five so let's get a bloody move on," Freya sighed, tapping the back of Finn's head to get him to stand up.

"Go get my coat, Finn," she rolled her eyes, walking over to the sink.

"Sometimes I wonder why you're even my best friend," he replied. "All you do is insult me."

"I'm your only friend," she smiled, snatching her coat.

"What about Isaiah?" he asked. "He's my friend."

"He's a prick," she rolled her eyes.

"Okay then what about Lottie?" he asked again.

"She's Freya's best friend not yours," Rory pointed out while pointing to Freya.

"What about Freya then?"

"She's your twin she doesn't count."

Finn opened his mouth to protest but was shut up by Rory's knowing look that was sent his way as she opened the front door. "If you stand there looking like a fish I'm going to be even more late than what I already am," she called over her shoulder and stepped out of the door and collided with another person.

"Watch where you going," the other person grumbled making Rory groan.

"You knew I was there Isaiah," she crossed her arms over her chest. "You're just being a prick as usual."

"Shut up," he rolled his eyes. "Where's Finn?"

"About to take me school so get out of my way before I'm put in detention," Rory shoved him aside.

"To say your only friends are your aunt, your uncle and your aunt's best friend, you might want to think about being nicer to people," the boy retorted with a smug smirk.

"I'm nice to people who are nice to me, you are not nice to me so I am not nice to you," she said with the smirk that mirrored his. The two began a staring contest that was ended by Finn dragging the blonde away.

"What did you do that for? I was winning that!" she complained as Isaiah decided to go with the two and walk towards the school much to Rory's annoyance. "What are you doing Isaiah?"

"Waiting for Finn to drop you off so we can go," Isaiah replied while stepping on the back of the girl's shoe taking it off.

"You don't have to go you know," she huffed, looking over her shoulder glaring at him while she put her shoe back on.

"But I love annoying you so I'm tagging along," he smirked as the three of them turned the corner to walk down to the school where the familiar brunette teacher came into view, tapping her watch with a small smile.

"It's her own fault, miss. She wouldn't wake up," Finn told her as they got closer.

"Will you shut up!" she hissed shoving Finn into Isaiah. "Frey tell him!" she complained, leaning into the girl.

"Finn leave her be," Freya teased her brother while holding onto Rory's arm.

"Come on, Rory," the teacher chuckled. "You're lucky that I'm not as strict as the other teachers."

"I know," she smiled, picking up her pace leaving the two boys and Freya to walk into the building with the teacher.

The two began walking to the classroom, "What are we doing today?"

"Maths," the teacher replied and Rory let out a sigh.

"I hate maths," she complained.

"I know you complain every day," the teacher chuckled as she opened the door and motioned for the girl to go in first which the blonde did sending the woman a smile as she went to sit down.

The woman watched as the girl decided to doodle instead of doing her work, "Rory, I don't remember telling anyone to sit and doodle daisies."

"That's because you didn't," she replied as she carried on.

After a few minutes of doodling daisies the girl decided to move onto doodling sunflower's before looking up to see the teacher writing her name on the chalkboard. The girl crinkled her nose at the sound of the tap after the woman wrote, "Miss Clark." on the board.

"Why have you wrote your name if we already know it?" Rory asked confused.

"Not everyone knows it," the woman smiled.

"Do they live under a rock?" she asked, turning her attention back to her drawing.

"I don't know but if you don't start doing your work I'll have to tell your dad," Miss Clark told her as she sat back at her desk, the girl not even acknowledging the teacher's threat.

"I don't understand why she's even here if she's anything like her family she'll drop out next year," the boy sitting at the desk behind her spoke up, gaining the girl's attention.

Rory turned her head to look at the boy, "What's that supposed to mean?"

The boy shrugged, "Your family is stupid. None of them went to school so what's different about you?"

Miss Clark could see Rory seeing red as she attempted to attempt to diffuse the situation before it escalated.

"I'm sitting here aren't I?" she asked, pushing her chair under the desk and slamming her hands on the boy's desk making him jump. "What's different about me, Henry is that I'm trying to learn and you won't keep your mouth shut."

"My mum says all you Shelby's are all the same, you're all stupid," the boy went on. Rory getting more angry by every word, her fists balling.

"You're all going to get no-"

A crack filled the room as Rory swung her fist to slam into Henry's nose, the boy, and the rest of the class, gasping and moving his hand to clutching his bleeding nose.

"Say another word about my family and I'll make sure yours ends up in the cut," she whispered as she gripped his neck.

"Aurora!" Miss Clark exclaimed, rushing to the boy with a clear broken nose. "Peggy take Henry to the nurse," she instructed the girl who was sat beside Henry. "You're coming with me to Mr Carlton's office," she then told the blonde who was rubbing at her knuckles.

Rory wasn't a fan of Mr Carlton she thought he gave unfair punishments to her because he didn't like her family but she couldn't really argue with whatever punishment he would serve her with because Henry would be the fourth person she'd punched this week and she'd only been at school two days.

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The silence was suffocating, even for an eight year old. John was glaring at her as Mr Carlton gave him an extremely detailed summary of what Rory had been up to for the past two days. Miss Clark had opted to wait outside to see what punishment he would give the girl.

"And then today she goes and punches another person for whatever reason and I can guarantee it won't be a good excuse," Mr Carlton concluded his rant about Rory's recent behaviour while he placed the file he had from her teachers with the incidents written in as he looking over his glasses.

"I'm sorry, Mr Carlton," John cleared his throat turning his attention from his daughter to the head teacher. "It won't happen again. What's her punishment?"

"She will have to be excluded for a week," he replied earning a sigh from Rory while she threw her head back.

"Can we go?" Rory questioned, raising her head back up. John tapped her arm with a glare.

"I'll see you here next Wednesday, Miss Shelby and I hope I don't get another visit from you in a while," he sent her a smile which she did not return instead giving him an eye roll.

John opened the door and walked out colliding with another body, "Sorry, Rory let's go."

"Bye Miss Clark," Rory waved and smiled at the woman before she skipped after her dad.

"How many times do you need to be told not to punch people?" John asked.

"Are you actually mad or are you doing that thing where you pretend to be mad if Pol or school asks but then you're not actually mad?" she asked, a hopeful glint crossing her eyes.

"No I'm actually mad, Rory this is the fourth time I've been in the head teachers office this week you've been here two days!"

"They asked for it," she shrugged.

John let out an annoyed sigh, "I don't care, you do not go around punching people."

"You do, uncle Tom does and uncle Arthur does," she replied with her eyebrows raised.

"We're adults," he argued.

"So when I'm an adult I can go around hitting people when they insult me?" Rory asked.

"No!" he exclaimed. "Just don't hit people. Go home and stay there, Finn and Isaiah should be there."

"Okay," she waved at him.

"Fucking child is going to be the death of me," John sighed as he watched his daughter turn down the street leading to their house.

The girl in-fact did not go home but went to Polly's house instead and found herself sitting in the kitchen with Finn and Freya as the boy smoked his stolen cigarettes.

"Uncle Tom will kill you if he see's you," Rory told him, kicking her feet up to rest on the table while she rested her head on Freya's shoulder. "Dad said you were at my house."

"Decided to stay here and Tommy isn't going to find out," he replied looking back when they heard the door slam.

"I think he will," she added smugly.

"You know he will," Freya replied, her head resting on top of Rory's head.

"Is Lottie still at school?" Rory asked as Tommy walked through the door.

"Yeah. She is," Freya nodded as she turned to look at her brother.

"Does your dad know you're here?" Tommy asked Rory who had her attention solely on a guilty looking Finn.

"No, he thinks I'm at home," she shook her head.

"I'll tell him," Tommy told her before following her eye-line to Finn.

"Finn?" he asked.

"Arthur's mad as hell," Finn replied trying to make sure he didn't get into trouble.

"So's my dad," Rory butted in.

"Why? What have you done now?" Tommy asked.

"Got excluded again," she replied with a shrug.

"Which part of you need to stay in school do you not understand?" Tommy asked, putting his hands in his pockets to look at his niece.

Rory looked up at him, "I'm trying but stupid people are making it difficult."

"Ignore them."

"What like you ignore them?" she asked.

"What does a ten year old know about hell, eh?" Tommy asked picking up the cigarette that Finn had attempted to get rid of butt had fallen on the floor.

"I'm eleven on Sunday!" Finn replied standing up quickly and Tommy threw the cigarette back into the fire and walked into the betting den leaving the three alone to talk amongst themselves again. They heard Tommy tell John that Rory was sat in the kitchen with Finn and Freya and then they all heard John sigh.

The girl laid her head on the table as she did some more doodling of daisies and sunflowers, Finn getting confused and looking at his sister when the doodling stopped and looked over to see Rory asleep with her pencil still in her hand and Freya asleep with her head on the table.

"I'll watch her tonight," Polly placed her hand on John's shoulder as the two looked over at the three kids who were asleep at the table.

"She got kicked out again," John told his aunt. "Then outsmarted me. She's eight."

"She's her father's daughter, your mum got dragged into the head teacher's office more times than you actually went to school," Polly chuckled at the memories.

When Rory woke up she found herself laying on Polly's sofa with her head resting on the woman's legs, "Good afternoon sleeping beauty."

"What time is it?" Rory asked shifting to move on her back.

"It is six o'clock,"

"In the morning?"

"No, six pm," the woman shook her head as her fingers made their way through Rory's hair. "Are you hungry?"

"No, I'm still tired," she whispered. "Dad didn't get home until four this morning. Woke everyone up then I ended up having to go get George back to sleep."

"I'll speak to him," Polly told her watching as Rory raised her hand in the air showing her aunt her pinky.

"Promise?"

She smiled when she felt her aunt entwine their pinkies, "I pinky promise. Go to Ada's room if you're still tired, she won't mind. I'll come and tuck you in."

The blonde girl slowly got off the sofa and trudged up the stairs to her aunts room where the bed was empty but Rory's night dress lay out on the bed for her. Once changed, her clothes folded up and placed on the floor Polly walked into the bedroom and over to the bed where she sat beside her.

"I had a good reason this time Pol," Rory told her. "He said we were all stupid and that we would go no where in life." Polly stroked her head as she went on, "I know I shouldn't have punched him but he wouldn't shut up he just kept going and going and I just snapped."

"Best thing to do is to ignore people like him, I know it's hard when they're insulting your family but learn to tune them out," Polly smiled, leaning down to kiss her forehead. "Goodnight sweetheart."

"Goodnight Pol," Rory smiled softly, Polly squeezing her hand and making her way out of the bedroom, closing the door on her way out.

𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞:
Enjoy baby Finn and Rory before I ruin them later on <33