Chapter 47: Unwanted Visitors!!!
Clara arrived 2hours later, by 10 am after Lancelot Jr had left the library.
She took the early morning train to reach the elemental city and later took an additional cab to reach her destination.
She had tried to evade all the questions thrown by the other two women back at the orphanage home.
Shalia and Veronica had more or less imprisoned her in the orphanage home.
They made sure Clara carried out all their collective tasks while she only gets half her pay, it was a truly ruthless level of greed and wickedness.
That day Clara had told them she wouldn't be doing their work for the day.
In turn, they threatened to reduce her salary but she didn't even mind and left.
They were stunned, they asked her all kinds of questions and were even creating wild assumptions that would shock an over-thinker but Clara was silent and so calculating, it made them a bit apprehensive.
That side of her had never been seen before, what huge secret was she holding to be this secretive, the fear of the unknown and the curiosity of the unseen was eating away their composure.
So, in order to ease their apprehension, they decided to tail her movements as she went to the elemental city, and with no one watching over the orphanage home, it could make matters worse.
After Clara arrived at the school, she had to join a long queue of parents and guardians that were also there to see their kids.
As the queue was moving rather slowly Clara was able to sight the silhouette of Shalia and Veronica,
'These two witches have followed me here'
She thought within herself regretfully.
Almost immediately an announcement was made that reverberated throughout the whole school,
"Good morning our esteemed parents and guardians, this announcement is to invite you to the annual school inter-level competition, that would be held in three months."
"We are making it this early to showcase how much improvements our students have made. We will need your support in cash and in kind towards this program. There would be lucrative awards for the best student at every level across all elements."
"Please feel free to see our bursary department for any form of donation, this would be well appreciated."
"The highly impactful parents would also be given special seats during the competition and awards, as a token of appreciation for the benefits of their contribution, please keep this timeline in mind. 'Three months', 'Inter-level competition', thank you for listening"
The announcement ended and it felt like everyone's ears had been given a breather after the previous riotous blast.
Clara was not concerned about anything else at this point, her only focus was to see Lancelot Jr.
After a while in the long queue, it was finally her turn.
As she was about to speak, the person attending to her who was sitting on a plastic seat and resting her hands on a plastic table spoke in a very leisurely manner;
"Good morning ma'am, please state your purpose of visit!" ,
Before Clara could respond, both Shalia and
Veronica appeared at both sides of her,
"We came together"
They chimed simultaneously.
Clara didn't even seem bothered as she looked at the woman in front of her,
"l came to see my son, Gabriel Li",
The woman interviewing her furrowed her brow as she checked her list,
"Oh, the scholarship student, he is a very quiet boy, doesn't really cause trouble, just move straight to that hall, the class master for the fire nation class, Mr. Cromwell would direct you, Mr Cromwell is also their fire elemental teacher"
Clara thanked her and moved while both Shalia and Veronica were carrying shocked expressions as they followed Clara,
"Wow, your secret is even bigger than I imagined, you already have a son, tell me, did you sleep with an elemental billionaire?" Shalia Joked.
"l think she banged a hot one, a fire elemental
for that matter, hmm tasty, it must be spicy under there,"
She said, pointing to the general area of Clara's genitalia, but Clara ignored them both and moved to the general area where she would find Mr. Cromwell.
Before she entered the hall, she noticed a boy running towards her.
She saw that this was Lancelot Jr.
He looked more mature even as a small boy, his eyes were deeper, he was calmer and his approach was calculated, she stopped in her tracks and changed direction to meet Lancelot Jr head-on.
The two melted in each other's embrace. Clara felt so happy, you'd think all her problems in the world had been solved by that hug.
She held on to him as if her life depended on it. She smiled so happily as tears dropped from her eyes onto Lancelot Jr's face.
"Mommy, why are you crying?" Lancelot Jr asked with a puzzled face.
Shalia couldn't help but be touched at this moment, even her ice-cold and evil heart felt a tinge of sympathy for Clara.
She couldn't fathom the reason for the tears but she knew that she had also been a contributing factor to the hard life Clara had been going through.
She was solemn and felt ashamed, Veronica on the other hand couldn't care less. In fact, she was about to make a side remark when Shalia grabbed her hand and pulled her along as they both walked away from the two.
Lancelot Jr cleaned the tears from Clara's face, he saw how sunken her eyes were, she had not even been getting enough sleep, working so hard to raise money.
His heart felt a bit of anger appear, then he suddenly heard the spirit speaker's voice that had been quiet all this while.
"You can't allow anger into your heart, it would affect your training, you need to grow stronger until you can control your emotions, don't allow strong emotions to control you, they would easily overwhelm you and you'd find it harder to concentrate and all you've been fighting for would be lost. If you love her then put away anger, but don't forget the pain."
Lancelot Jr suddenly became calm after that and held on to Clara tightly,
"l will make you happy mom," he said out loud.
Clara was a virgin who had never known a man, she devoted her life to surviving as her past had been riddled with difficulties and pain, but she felt extremely happy when Lancelot Jr called her mom.
She couldn't explain why she felt such a pull, but she had something that finally made her happy, she didn't care how strange it looked to others.
"Hmmm, how has the school been, do you like it here? Have they been taking care of you?" Clara said as she examined Lancelot Jr from head to toe,
"I'm fine mom, the principal takes good care of me",
Lancelot Jr said,
From then on, they both took time to catch up, Clara held on to Lancelot Jr like he was her own son.
Simultaneously back at the orphanage, the kids woke up to see the house empty of any overlooking adults.
The bigger ones decided to play outside, and as such, all the other kids joined in as they flocked out onto the streets.
A close door neighbor noticed this and immediately called the police, for the fear that something had happened that caused the children to be loose on the street.
In about thirty minutes, the police had arrived and managed to bring all the children back to the orphanage.
After that was successfully done, they then started to contact the ones in charge.
Clara had already switched off her phone beforehand so that she won't be disturbed by both Shalia and Veronica because she knew the evil extent to which they could go to make her life miserable.
Shalia and Veronica had also left their phones behind, they were too curious to consider other things.
When the three of them got home after two hours had passed they noticed that the front door was guarded by a policewoman who kept the children from roaming about, and about four police cars were packed outside their orphanage home.
"What is going on?"
Veronica asked, almost immediately all three of them figured out what had happened,
Clara was angry,
"l left this home for just a day and you two couldn't keep your evil intention aside and do your duty"
She was so angry that the veins on her forehead were discernable if one should check her scalp.
Veronica was shocked at her sudden outburst, she had never seen this version of Clara,
'Was it that child that is influencing all these changes?' She pondered.
An officer walked to the path where the three of them stood.
"Good Afternoon Officer, we are sorry for being.
The officer raised a hand to cut her off as Clara attempted to explain.
"A judge is currently aware of this situation and punishment would be meted out for this,
Children's lives are in your hands you ought to be
more responsible",
Both Veronica and Shalia shared a look, they already had a plan when the time came,
Shalia felt bad that it had to be Clara but what could she do, it's better that Clara goes through the punishment than herself.