Six

The next morning, Penn was awake, dressed and ready to take on the world when her door opened with a bang. 

"Good, you are awake." A taller buffer boy strode into the room without knocking. "My name is Stanley and I am going to show you around today."

Without acknowledging the presence in the room, Penn continued with putting her new shoes on. She would need to see Vallas later so they can make plans about how they would go about achieving her mission.

"Hey." The tone of the boy, Stanley turns sharp. "You have no right to ignore me."

"Get Out." Penn said instead.

"Excuse me?" the boy questioned. 

"Go out. Close my door, knock, wait for an invitation then come in." Penn said as Stanley stared at him. "Do you want to keep gaping at me or do you want to get this ridiculous chore over with so we can go about our lives and not see each other again."

Stanley snapped his jaw closed so hard that she could hear the snap from where she had sat. With a nod, Stanley turned to leave while she stood up and collected the key for her room from the drawer where she had dropped it last night after Vallas had given it to her. When the knock sounded, she strolled to the door, opened it and slipped out then locked the door behind her. 

"But…" Stanley started. 

"Nobody is welcomed into my room." Penn tells him as she put her key in her pocket and waited for Stanley to talk. 

"Lord Vallas does not like any room door to be locked in his house." Stanley said with pride at knowing what Lord Vallas wants more. 

"He will take a special exception to me." Penn replied as Stanley smile got wiped off. "The tour."

"You think that you are so special but you are not." Stanley hissed, showing his hatred of the fact that Penn was the heir. 

"I am actually very special. You just don't know." Penn said as Stanley expression turned into confusion, like he couldn't tell why Penn was not scared by him. Penn was already used to bigger and worse people in existence than Stanley and his attempts to scare her were simply laughable but she maintained her stoic face to prevent herself laughing out loud at Stanley words. 

"We will see…" Stanley started.

"Yes we will, the tour?" Penn asked losing her patience with Stanley. 

"Right this way." Stanley answered as he led her on the tour. He showed her different parts of the compound and most of which were filled with boys of different age and half of those boys were glaring at her as if she stole a converted position and thinking about it, she did. 

"I want to stop here for now." Penn paused outside the house that served as the kitchen when she saw Leda inside directing different women to do different chores. 

"I don't have the time to babysit someone later especially since I am busy not jobless like the person." Stanley said hoping to get a rise out of Penn but she just looked at him with blank eyes. 

"Leda will continue my tour." She said as she turned entered the kitchen without any extra words said to Stanley. 

"That boy is so unnatural!!! I am having goosebumps because of his actions." Stanley complains before he left. 

Meanwhile Penn got to where Leda was standing, ignoring the looks of curiosity she was getting. "Leda, good morning."

"Lord." Leda shrieked as she turned around to stare at Penn who was failing woefully in her attempt not to smile. "Don't attempt to scare me like that boy never again"

"Attempt? But I did." Penn gloated as Leda frowns more. 

"Very funny, I am dying with laughter boy, what do you want?" 

"To ask you to tell me what is going on. I don't want to ask Lord Vall… Master." Penn corrected herself, she needed to get used to calling Vallas master like the other boys her age do and Father in front of other important people. "But I will, if it do come to that and it hasn't, I want to know why I have hostility pointed at me from all angles especially when I just barely got here, I haven't had the chance to step on anybody toes yet." 

"You say yet like you plan on doing it." Leda questions.

"I can't be peaceful with everybody so it would be better if I do go out and make my enemies on suppose." 

"Just like Lord Vallas." Leda clicked her teeth. Then putting her heavy arm on Penn shoulders, she directed her to a stool on the corner of the room where they was in, away from all the action of women running around, either cooking or carrying platters of food around. "Over the years, Lord Vallas has recruited boys from all age, either to join his family or to be trained but each and every of us know that Lord Vallas was looking for a Heir, someone who would be his son in every bit of that word except blood, a lot of the boys were bitter that he didn't chose them to get that boy he was looking for but over the years they began to think that my Lord will not be able to find the perfect person he was looking for until you came along. So your presence reminds them of the fact that they are lacking and not the special person they think they are." 

"Why would they think they are special when they are not?" Penn asked confused, if there was one thing she never did, it was to not deceive herself into thinking she was special when she clearly wasn't.

"To help reduce the sting to their pride and besides, they are special, not as special as they think but still special." Leda smiled. 

"How?" 

"Not everybody gets to be chosen by Lord Vallas, he only chose those he sees something in them. Whatever he must have seen in you was enough to make him chose you as his heir." 

"There is nothing in me, I am not special." Penn shrugged. 

"You are, you have potential beyond what is seen, your mind works in ways which others cannot fathom."

"You don't know me enough to arrive at those conclusions." 

Leda looked at Penn like she would like to hit some sense into her. "Really? Tell me Penn, why did you come to the kitchen."

"Because you are here."

"And why chose to talk to me when you would have just gone to My lord room."

"Because women knows more gossips than men, the rest will probably dismiss you as not important but you are the second most important person in this household." Penn shrugged. Leda was the mistress of the house if Vallas was the master. The easy conversation that happened between them when Penn arrive was enough to make her see that it was the truth. 

"And you came to this conclusion less than a day of staying here." Leda said.

More like within five minutes of arriving. Was Penn thought but she just shrugged.

"That just proves that My Lord was right in choosing you. Most people here are not even aware of that, they think that I am just a housekeeper. A servant." Leda spat out angrily.

"And you let them think that." Penn studies Leda who smiled a secretive smile. "Tell me, how did you know Lord Va… Master and who are you to him?"

"Smarter than your appearance and you do look smart already." Leda said appraisingly. "I am the person who has known him the longest here and probably the only one alive. And I am his best friend."

Penn stared at the woman in shock but she smiled. "I never expected that answer." 

"We find the unexpected in places we never thought to look for them. I am sure that was your case with the master." Leda voiced.

Penn nodded. "You have no idea."

"Then you will be just enough. I am guessing you didn't finish your tour." Leda changes the topic and when Penn shook her head.

"I wanted to see you and I was hoping you could find someone with an unbiased view about this place to give me a tour. Stanley was definitely not raised right." 

"Really? What made you come to that decision?" Leda asked.

"He is too prideful and pompous, those certainly can't be the qualities Master is looking for. I didn't like anything about him, he rubbed me the wrong way." Penn rants, Leda cracked a smile.

 "Stanley must have gotten on your nerves, well you are right about enemies, Stanley is bitter that you were chosen, he will try to make your life hell on earth."

"He can try." Penn retorted. 

"Agnes will show you around." Leda waved a girl over. "The females are the ones whom Stanley has no control over, Stanley was the second male with this most power here, you just dropped him to third place so he does have reason to be prideful."

"Who is Stanley?" Penn asked Leda, confused. 

"Lord Vallas star student and my son." Leda replies.