Clara entered the dining room to see a long wooden table surrounded by chairs, the walls painted in a cheerful shade of forest green.
She also noticed that Emma had stayed true to her word. There was an empty seat next to the girl waiting for Clara.
As for the rest of the table, it was buzzing with life. The girl from earlier, Olive, was talking somebody's ear off about her day so far, Emma and a boy dressed in a finely tailored suit were chatting at one side of the table, there was twins were sitting together giggling, and the others were dispersed about the room.
However, Clara couldn't bring herself to enter the room. She suddenly felt insecure at the thought of entering such a new place with so many new people.
As her motioned washed over her, the sun receeded from the room slowly, reflecting her awkwardness.
Enoch, who had already sat down, noticed the change in light, but didn't mention anything.
That's when Miss Peregrine stood up from the end of the table, clapping her hands to die the noise, "Children."
The chatter stopped slowly, all eyes on the Ymbryne.
"I know you've all been excited to meet our new family member." She began, gesturing to Clara at the door. "But let's all remember to give her some space and time to get to know you all."
Miss Peregrine coaxed Clara into the room by her shoulder, gently pushing the girl towards Emma.
She gave Emma a small smile before sitting beside her.
Clara couldn't even eat. All she could do was focus on the eyes staring at her.
She hadn't even introduced herself yet. That might be why they were staring.
"Um, hi everyone." Clara offered a bright smile. "My name is Clara. I've moved from a loop in London."
Once the other children had found out her name, the table came back to life with noise.
All the children were engrossed in their previous conversations, only a few being about Clara.
So, she took it as an opportunity to study them all.
A pubescent boy, who seemed to be quite smart, wore a fancy tail coat jacket with a black top hat atop his head, along with a matching bow tie.
The girl to his left was of the same age, with two braids in her hair resting gently upon her shoulders. She sported a neutral colour pallete, with basic brown trousers with a matching cropped jacket.
Beside Emma was a younger girl with short, warm brown hair.
Enoch sat at the opposite end from Miss Peregrine, not bothering to talk to anybody, but instead ate quietly.
A pair of masked children sat on the across from Clara, communicating with hums instead of words, sharing their food, which seemed to have been blended into a smooth consistency in their cups.
Olive sat next to them, talking away to the boy on her right. The boy looked to be about thirteen, a wearing yellow and green jumper and a beekeepers hat.
Then, an invisible figure wearing a jacket and a hat, his trousers under the table.
And finally there was a young girl. She looked to be only five or six. She was almost doll-like, with a dainty face and fair skin. She had immaculate golden curls that nestled to the back of her head. Like a doll, she was also very small.
"Do you want to talk to anybody?" Emma leant over with a soft voice. "It'll be good to get to know people."
The girl surveyed the table once more, seeing who was the most intriguing. Despite the cute young girl and the put together boy, she couldn't get past the boy in yellow.
"The boy in the bee net." Clara said. "Is he nice?"
"Oh, he's lovely." Emma beamed, calling over the table. "Hugh, tell Clara about yourself."
The boy chirped up with a small grin. "I'm Hugh, I've got bees living in me."
Clara smiled back at him, amused by how proud he seemed of his peculiarity.
The rest of the table heard the interaction, and took it as a cue to go around and introduce themselves to the newcomer.
By the end of the meal, Clara had learnt everybody's names, and was now in a lovely conversation with Horace.
"Your dreams are prophetic?" Clara raised an eyebrow. "Do you dream about new Peculiars?"
"Well, yes." He nodded. "A lot of the time, I can tell when they're going to arrive, but on occasion I can know more."
The girl's eyes widened. "Do you know much about me?"
Horace mused in the girl's expression, "I know of your peculiarity."
This started another loud buzz at the table.
Fiona leant over, "Oh, what is it?"
Hugh seemed eager too, "Can you show us?"
The girl smiled at all the friendly faces. "I can control the sky. I manipulate the weather based on my feelings."
A chorus of gasps came from the children.
"So, if you're really, really sad..." Bronwyn looked over.
"Brownyn." Hugh, shook his head. "Don't be rude."
"No, it's fine. Then," Clara took a gentle tone with the younger girl, "it rains."
"But it's sunny right now!" Claire, the youngest girl at the table giggled.
"That means I'm really happy." She smiled at the girl in pink.
"How long are you staying here, Clara?" Olive smiled softly, taking a warmer approach to the new girl rather than bombarding her with questions like the rest of the children.
Clara looked back at the red haired girl, "Well, I do like it here. So, hopefully, I won't have to leave."
"That's great, I'm glad you're settling in well, dear." Miss Peregrine interrupted the conversation at the table. "Very well, go change into your night clothes children. And then we'll have movie time."
The younger kids rushed out of the room, eager to watch their nightly movie.
However, Olive and Clara stayed back to clean up the table.
Well, Clara offered at first, but Olive insisted that she would do it and that she should go change ready for the movie.
Clara nodded, but still took all the cups and tableware into the kitchen to help the slightest.
She went to her room, retracing her steps from earlier to remember where it was.
Then, she began to find an appropriate nightdress. She settled on a pale yellow one, with small ruffles at her wrists and a dolly neckline.
Then, she tied her hair up into a loose braid at the back to keep it out of her face before making her way back down stairs.