Mr.Pelton and His Five Children

Midterms and the Letter

As the winter holidays came to an end, most children in the country were getting ready to take their midterm exams, and the Pelton children were no exception.

George was under a lot of stress, seeing that this was his last high school year before going off to university. His midterms were a big deal. Maggie's exams were also stressful since her grades start to truly count now, seeing that she is in year 10 (grade 9). And although the twins did have some sort of tests being handed out to them at their very young age, they still had it a lot easier than their older siblings. And Margot, she just brought paintings home.

Almost like any other household, Mr.Peltons house was nearly dead silent with the children studying in the library, but the tension and stress was loud enough to deafen any person.

In their immense sense of concentration, Annabel and Richard left the children alone most of the time, seeing them only during meal times and during times they were taking a breather to complain about the amount of studying they have to do. Annabel and Richard did occasionally get called in to help with understanding or to test the children on certain subjects, but other than that, the children didn't want anyone with them. It got too stressful like that.

"A letter for you Annabel." Samantha handed Annabel her letter, she was the one that got the mail today.

"Thank you Samantha." She took the letter from the womens hand, and with Margot holding her other hand, they walked into Richards office.

"Aren't you two just a sight for sore eyes." He smiled up at them and leaned back in his chair, putting down the papers he was looking at. His smile only grew when Annabel shot him a look. "Hey Mar." He picked his daughter up on to his lap when she came around his desk to give him the wet stick she found outside.

"It's wonderful, thank you." He kissed the top of her head and opened up one of his drawers to reveal that it was filled with sticks. He added the new one to the ever growing collection and placed Margot down to go play with the few toys he allowed inside his office.

"What do you have there?" He said, getting up from his seat and heading to the couch where Annabel was sitting.

"It's a letter from my mothers neighbor in the flat next door. Why is she..." As Annabel's eyes scanned the contents of the letter, her face turned from its natural, slightly flushed cheeks to a ghostly white and her hands began to slightly tremble.

"What's wrong?" Richard sat down and took the letter from her hands and began reading while she just sat there, clamping her hands together and thinking up the worst possible scenarios.

"W-what do I- I." She began to say once he put the letter down.

"You need to go to her." Richard said and folded the letter back up while studying her face.

"But what about the children? They have exams coming up and they might need me, but my mother, she's really sick and I need to be with her. But if I leave you and the chi-"

"Annabel, it's okay. Just calm down." He took her hands in his and moved closer.

She stopped rambling and felt a small sense of safety and security just from him holding her hands.

"We'll be okay. You don't have to worry about us. I'll help the children if they need anything with their school work. And Sam and Tam are getting more independent, no need to stress over them. You need to go to your mother and focus on her. She needs you right now. Stay with her for as long as you need."

"A-are you sure? Won't the children-"

"They'll understand. And anyways, this time it's an emergency and you are coming back, so it will all be okay."