The Bank was a red building, the biggest in Privet Place. It was erect and proper, as though someone had stuffed it in an invisible frame. All the sides were rectangular, and even the doorknobs were all flat and squared. Just looking at it made you squirm.That's how the Bank was nicknamed by most people 'The Cubed Tomato', or, for short, just 'Cuba'
"Who's Toby?" Genevieve asked as they entered in Cuba.
"Toby's my twin brother. His full name is Tobias Waters, but he gets teased mercilessly for that. He's a wimp, but he's still my twin." Rose answered.
"Is Rose your nickname as well?"
"No. People always think that I'm a 'Rosemary' or a 'Rosina' or a 'Rosalie' or a 'Rosalia' or a 'Rosetta' - hey, those aren't even the worst ones. I'm thinking 'Rosie ' or - worst of all, 'Primrose'." Rose scoffed. "Primrose? Ugh. No, I'm just Rose. But I do have a middle name, which is Victoria. After some great aunt on my father's side - not Queen Victoria. People think that just because I am going to Blackwood, a school for royalty, and I have a great-aunt x 8 or something that my great aunt was Queen Victoria. If my great aunt was Queen Victoria - hey that's not even possible because she never had any siblings. So there." Then she gasped. "Oh, right, she had half-siblings, didn't she! German half-siblings, one named Feodora and the other named Carl. However, they already have intensive lines of children that are all documented and they all went the German line, so there. Anyway, my dad's a footballer, not a member of royalty."
Genevieve and Hilda just stared at her. "Wha?"
"Sorry." Rose said, slightly embarrassed.
"Nah, it's fine." Hilda assured. "Genevieve also rambled on earlier on, remember, about Domino the Border Collie, and also before about her dad, Raymond Huang.."
"OH! Raymond Huang!" Rose gasped knowingly. "Founder and CEO of Huang Corp! My whole entire house was planned out by Huang Corp."
"Exactly. When I go to your house I'll show you how horribly my dad made it. My grandfather, George Huang, and my great-grandmother, Tiffany Huang, were two of his predecessors and they were the ones who made Huang Corp famous. Tiffany made it famous with her amazing interior and exterior designing skills and George kept to his mother's legacy when it he inherited the company. But Dad won't follow Tiffany's basic rules to success for Huang Corp, and even though it is still popular, because it sounds 'good' to have your house done by the same company that all the rich people have had it done, but they had their houses made at George's or even Tiffany's time."
"I don't know how I got friends that just love to ramble and ramble." Hilda sighed.
They entered the bank and Rose went the Waters vault, deposited her money, and then Genevieve went into the Huang vault and deposited her money as well. Then, Hilda asked the woman on duty, "Excuse me? I need to get into Emily Spencer's vault."
"Emily Spencer?" The woman replied smoothly. "Do you have a key?"
"Uh - no. I do not." Hilda said awkwardly.
"And what, exactly, is your relantionship status with Emily Spencer?"
"I think she was my mum, I'm not 100 percent sure.."
"So how, may I ask, will I be able to let you into Emily Spencer's vault without any key or any sort of identification?" The woman asked, one eyebrow raised.
"I'm about 95% sure that Emily Spencer was my mum.."
The woman laughed out loud, a high pitched squeal that sounded like a baby piglet. "What is your name, girl?"
"Bathilda Stone." Hilda mumbled.
"Louder, girl, I can't hear you."
"Bathilda Stone." Hilda whispered, only a fraction of an amount higher.
"Girl, I don't know if this is my problem, or yours, because I still can't hear you." The woman grumbled impatiently.
"Bathilda Stone." Hilda replied, trembling.
"Uh-um, oh!" The woman stuttered. "Are you completely sure? Bathilda Stone! Golly!"
"What's wrong with her name?" Rose snarled.
"Nothing! Nothing, no, nothing, it's just-" then the woman whispered something into Rose's ear, that made her eyes bug out.
"That Bathilda Stone?" She mouthed.
"Are you sure that you are Bathilda Stone?" The woman repeated, still stunned.
"Yes!" Hilda cried, feeling a bit fed up.
"Well, here's the spare key, then, Ms Stone." The woman said, handing her the key.
So Hilda went off, done the stairs, to the vault with the bronze door. She put the key in, twisted it all the way round, and a square doorknob popped out. Stunned, Hilda turned it, and the bronze door seemed to slide open.
In the enormous vault, piles of bank notes and coin took up half the space, while a large oak dressing table with an ornate mirror was filled to brim with pearl necklaces, bracelets of jade, earrings of the purest gold, and rings of emerald, ruby, opal and sapphires. A gramophone on one corner, badly bruised but still beautiful, was still playing phrases of sonatas and old jazz and blues, and keys to various different houses, all joined together on a metal circle.
However, they weren't alone.
"Thief!" A shrill voice shrieked. "Thief in the Spencer vault! Thief! HELP!"
"Burglar!" Hilda screamed, terrified. "Stealing precious Spencer artefacts and antiquities! And the money, too!"
Rose ran to the emergency lever and pulled it down with all her strength, Genevieve ran for help and Hilda stared in the middle of the mess, shocked.
"Who are you?" She asked into the air.
"I'm Anna Grace Willows, named after two Vogue editor-in-chiefs, also known as Elizabeth Margarita Lennox, named after two Schuyler sisters!"
"Anna?" Genevieve growled. She had just come back from her run and no one was in sight.
"Genevieve Huang?" Anna replied coldly. "You're the thief?"
"We're not thieves and you know it." She then advanced next to Anna and mumbled something that Hilda could not hear.
"I don't care, Huang. How do you know she's telling the truth?" Anna hissed.
Genevieve replied, but again, too quiet to hear.
"I'm still reporting you." Anna replied, arms crossed.
Genevieve spoke again, voice more urgent.
"Not my problem."
Genevieve, now getting annoyed, whispered something again. This time, Hilda caught two words..
Alexandra Lennox