Private Finished A Son's Mischief Discovered

Celeste hummed softly to herself as she put the last of Shale's clean clothes away and halfway tidied up all the clothes on the floor by throwing them in a hamper next to his bathroom. When she was done, she hurried down the stairs in a black t-shirt, faded jeans and in her bare feet to the kitchen. She had tons to do before Shale got home at six - like bake a batch of bread, make a loaf of baked clay with crushed up sandstone for Shale, water some plants in her herb garden, and write up some lessons for the starting school year.

Pulling out the flour and yeast, along with some sugar, oil and water, Celeste started preparing the bread dough. After she had mixed everything together and kneaded it together, she placed the dough aside in a bowl to rise, in a warm spot, with a clean tea towel over it. As she turned around, she felt herself hit something with her elbow - looking around, she saw that she had inadvertently knocked the small bag of flour over, spilling part of the contents on the counter and partly on herself, she wiped away the flour as best she could off her clothes.

"Nom da Dieu!" she swore loudly as she saw there was flour everywhere and went to find a dustpan to clean it up.

@Kada

Celeste stopped in mid-sweep when she suddenly heard the door. Putting the dustpan, which was half full of flour from the counter, in the sink, she wiped her face with her clean hand, hoping she didn't have any flour on her face.

Padding in her bare-feet across the hardwood, she stopped at the door, stood on her tiptoes and peered through the peephole to see who it was. Seeing only a man with red hair in a police uniform, she stood down and opened the door, wondering what he might want. Heaven knows they had had some interesting and creepy people - like that old hag - loitering around the neighbourhood lately.

Opening the door, her gaze went first to the officer and then to the person standing somewhat sheepishly behind him - sort of like he was hiding behind the police officer.

"Mon dieu! Shale!?" she asked questioning as her horrified gaze immediately snapped back to the officer, wondering what Shale had done or what had happened, feeling a bit speechless at that moment.

@Kada

Celeste moved her gaze from Officer Drakenhardt to her adoptive son, or soon to be adoptive son, Shale once more, nodding once at the officer's suggestion that they talk somewhere less public. She opened the door wider and gestured for the two to come in.

Leading them into the kitchen living room area, she turned and narrowed her gaze slightly when she saw Shale make a move to bolt upstairs to his room.

"I don't think so..." she said curtly, sidestepping Shale and placing herself between him and the hallway, very used to students trying to sneak away or out of class. "Sit down, Shale. Now." she said firmly as she looked at the officer.

"I apologise for that," she said, "What happened, may I ask?" she said to Officer Drakenhardt as she glanced at Shale making sure he did as he had been told.


@Kada

"An altercation? Like a fight?" Celeste looked to Shale now worried. "Was anyone hurt?" she asked the officer, her shock and anger now dissipating almost immediately when she heard that Shale had been fighting.

She had first thought that Shale had maybe gotten in trouble with vampires, something that worried her immensely, and no amount of assurances from Shale that he'd be careful really calmed that fear.

Then at the officer's words, she nodded in agreement,"Yes, I do know what you mean. I work at the school, we see it all the time with new students, especially with ones who have no clue that magic exists..." she said. Then...

"I just worry sometimes. Maybe too much." she admitted then as she nodded to Shale that he could leave if he wanted to. "Shale has had a few problems with fitting in, I'm afraid."

@Kada

"I understand. It has been stressful for him lately - with the adoption pending and school starting soon. I'll see if I can talk to the school therapist or somebody in town before the school year begins about some counselling." Celeste said thoughtfully.

"It is appreciated," Celeste said with a smile, "And I am very grateful. Shale means the world to me. I'd have hated if anything happened to him. " she admitted as her gaze strayed to Shale and smiled softly.

"Actually... I do have something else, now that... " here the timer went off and she had to quickly excuse herself for a minute while she took the bread out of the oven and placed it to cool on the counter. Then she came back to where the officer was standing, realising now that, as she gaze up that he was actually quite a bit taller than her.

"Sorry about that... Uhm.. oh, yes, there was something I'd like to report, or maybe not, I don't know actually... You see, we have had a few suspicious visitors over the last few days..." Celeste started, not sure if she was wasting his time or not.

@Kada