It
all started with a newspaper. Every morning their father read the
newspaper during their obligatory silent breakfast. Vanya was seated at
her designated spot right across
from him and every time he lifted it up to turn a page, she could see
the front page.
“Another
story about the Umbrella Academy” is what she thought at first, for
that was what it usually meant when she saw children in school uniform
on the front page. Halfway
through breakfast Vanya started to realize that she was actually wrong.
This wasn’t a group of gleaming boys with only one girl looking quite
innocently. No, no. This group consisted of all girls who wore the same
uniform which seemingly had been altered in
different ways so they still looked quite individual. Their father
would never allow such alterations!
Once
breakfast was over and the others had to go train according to
schedule, Vanya went to their mother and asked nicely if she could have
the newspaper their father was
reading during breakfast. If Mom though it was a strange request, she
never mentioned while handing it over.
Back
in her room Vanya read the entire article with a strange sort of
excitement she didn’t understand herself. According to the paper the
girls hadn’t done anything special.
Earlier that month a famous painting had been stolen and these girls
just happened to find it in some changing room in some luxury clothing
store. Then again, there was a certain glimpse in the eyes of the girls
in the pictures. As if they were all in on some
inside joke. Besides that, this was some suspiciously good publicity
for a school that, according to the paper, was about to be forcefully
closed down by the English Ministry of Education. What mostly drew
Vanya’s attention though was that these girls seemed
so different and yet their glances at each other betrayed how close
they were. There was this one picture in particular that caught her eye.
A girl with a wild perm and a another girl, this one with a straight
bob were leaning comfortably against each other
while sitting on a table, giving the camera self-assured looks with
their pinkies crossed where their hands were touching each other on the
table.
Keep reading