capricious

adjective

1. given to sudden and unaccountable changes of mood or behaviour

By the time I made it back to the pool area, the whole scene had calmed down some what. Mr Denault's powerful presence probably had something to do with that. One of the gardeners was fetching some of the fully dressed kids out of the pool, while maids were handing out towels.

Someone was vomiting in the hedge to the left of the outdoor patio and the noise was disturbing. A bunch of guys emptied form the entertainment room that was being closed off. I heard complaints about the abrupt closure and someone gave their apologies for the broken TV screen. I cringed at the thought of that massive wall screen being damaged beyond repair.

Someone is gonna have to pay for that. I thought. Good thing there are cameras that would have captured the whole incident on video for playback and evidence.

I found Eyva in the same lounger as she was in before, but this time she had a drink of something questionable in her hand. I hope she hasn't taken a drink from that. Although, if she did it would be the perfect pay back. I shook those vengeful thoughts from my mind.

"Eyva, can I speak to you for a minutes, please?" I call out before I've even arrived at the crowd surrounding my step sister. She doesn't remember any of these people and by the looks she hasn't told any of them that she lost her memory during the car accident.

"What does she want?" Someone complained.

"Come to steal again from your sister? Why do they even keep you in the house?" Another groupie moaned.

"Yeah, they should build a dog kennel for her. Hahaha!" Mocking laughter sounded out. It was nothing that I hadn't heard before, but by the looks of Eyva's face, she was horrified at the comments directed towards me. I quickly reached her before she said anything and gave herself away. She would need some of these people in the future and alienating everyone right now would be a stupid idea.

"Eyva 2.0. Blisters stick together." My stupid code words were enough to knock her out of the overwhelming situation she found herself in, emotionally and mentally, and she stood straight up and pushed her way towards me.

"What do you want?" She called out amongst all of the ongoing name calling and mockery. Sarcasm was rife with a healthy sprinkle derision.

"The kitchen." I told her and she immediately stormed off that direction while I hobbled on my crutches carefully after her. A foot blocked my way, but I managed to step over it in time before it tripped me up.

Mrs H was comforting Eyva in the kitchen by the time I arrived. She looked so upset and as soon as I stepped in, she turned around and pulled me into a hug.

"I had no idea. They were so awful to you. Lily, I'm so sorry." She was mortified and on the verge of a full blown bawl.

"Hey, HEY! None of that. You, take this." I handed her the medication and bottle of water that had made the trip outside and back in again with me. She gratefully took it all and sat on a stool at the kitchen island to calm down. Mr Denault arrived in the room silently.

"Denault, can you have everyone go home. Eyva has just had an episode and the doctor warned these may happen from time to time. She will need to rest before seeing anyone again. Please indicate that it would be best that someone recovering from a car accident is in much need of quiet and small doses of friends visiting. Not a whole party a few days out of hospital." I huffed in anger at their thoughtless treatment of my step sister. I waved off my frustration.

"Sorry, just ask them to leave politely. Take video footage and collect evidence of anything broken. Send invoices to each family who need to repay for damages. Include every girl who jumped into the pool fully clothed. Charge them a months supply of filtration chemicals, please." I huffed again.

"Dirty girls in the pool, gonna take weeks to get that stink out of the filtration system." I mumbled out loud that last part, like I was talking to myself, then gave a cheeky smile to Eyva when I see her react to my poor joke.

Mr Denault had the house cleared in under ten minutes and invoices sent to families in thirty. I reminded him to charge an extra ten percent for the inconvenience of reporting to the offenders in the first place.

The house was finally quiet.

Mrs H and I led Eyva up to her beautiful European style bedroom and settled her down to sleep. Baroque furniture was the theme for the room, in creams, and pinks and greens. It was like a peony sneezed all up in there and wah-la. Bedroom al-lah Eyva Overmeyer.

"How did that happen?" Wallace arrived home and stormed the third floor hallway just as we came out of Eyva's room. He was pissed.

"Mrs H was out on grocery run. I was at the apartment. Everyone who could defend against the groupie mob just happened to be out at that window of time where school finished for the day and Eyva was left here on her own. She said that she wanted to get to know a few of her friends, but when someone invited others over to visit with her, they in turn invited their friends and so on. It all snowballed from there and got out of hand. Eyva didn't know how to control the situation and couldn't do anything until I got home. I'm sorry. I didn't know this would happen."

"We've set future protocol in place so it wont ever happen again, Mr Overmeyer." Mrs H also spoke up, taking some of the responsibility onto herself as well.

"She needs that body guard A-SAP, Wallace. Someone close to her age but older, and someone who can learn sign language so she can communicate non-verbally. Someone who looks like they would belong in that circle of groupies, but is powerful enough to shut anything like that down again. You'll need to give them some sort of authority in the family, a cousin, or young aunty or something."

"Yes, I agree." Wallace looked at the door to Eyva's room and sighed, brushing his hands through his hair.

"Go in, she needs you right now, Wallace." I encouraged him to go in to see her, then left them alone and went to my own room and lay down for a much needed afternoon nap.