By the time the train stopped, Eva had only just visited the toilet on the train.

She had put it off for almost the entire hour until her fidgeting had started to drive me round the bend. I echoed Mark's claim that she could explode, even though I didn't believe it, and watched as she scurried up the train towards the toilet just minutes before we pulled into the station. Although I probably could have dealt with her fidgeting for a little bit longer, none of us knew what we were going to be doing the moment we arrived so her going to the toilet on the train was probably a good thing.

I sat on the seat and peered out of the window but the smoke from the wheels was so thick that I couldn't see a thing. Instead, I slumped back against the chair and reached down for my suitcase, making sure the latches were down and that I hadn't left anything behind. The others did the same, with Mark having to re-pack his entire suitcase since he had somehow managed to empty the entire thing all over the floor in the few hours we were on the train. He could make any room messy.

"We're going to let the younger ones get off the train first. When we depart, I want you all to be on your best behaviour," Mr Martin said.

"What happens next?" Sarah asked from a few rows ahead of us.

"You'll be lining up on the platform, and we'll be walking down to the village hall together. From there, you will be billeted out to the local community who have graciously offered their homes to you in these trying times."

"I doubt they had much choice," Mark said. He stood up and rested his hands on the seat in front of him.

We listened to the younger children in the front scramble to grab their suitcase and gas mask along with anything they may have taken out of their suitcase for the journey. The teachers told them to make sure no rubbish would be left behind, including the glass bottles that contained their drinks and the paper bags that had their lunches. After a few minutes, I watched them stumble off the train and onto the platform where they were told to line up.

Once they had started the walk towards the village hall, Mr Martin gestured for us to follow. I grabbed my suitcase and gasmask from the floor of the train and shuffled down the aisle and through the door that led onto the platform. The village station was small, with what appeared to be one platform with a large, brick building at the other end with a clock suspended in the middle. It looked like some of the bricks had started to crumble.

There were a couple of the Women's Voluntary Services hanging around in their grey uniforms, no doubt to instruct Mr Martin of where he was going and what we were to do when we reached the village hall. After a few minutes of standing on the platform, one of the volunteers blew a whistle and waved us through a stone archway at the far end of the platform. The archway led us onto a dirt path surrounded by trees and bushes that were as tall as we were, if not taller. Mark craned his neck to see if he could see anything.

"All I can see is trees, grass, and more trees. Lots of trees," he said.

"What did you expect? We're in the middle of nowhere. You're not going to see the factories out here, are you?" I said.

"I just thought there would be something other than trees. Maybe a little bit of civilisation. It's just a never-ending sea of green."

"A never-ending sea of green is better than the strange grey haze over London. That, and we can't smell the Thames here. That's a positive," Enid said.

"You sound like you're glad to be here." Mark looked at her.

"A little time out of the city never hurt anyone."

Enid shrugged and took a deep breath of the clean air that surrounded us. I had never been outside of London before and even though we had only been off the train for a little while, I was inclined to agree with her. The air was clean, fresh and the sky was a deep blue. Gone was the haze of the smoke from the factories or the strange fog that covered the city like a blanket. Everything was fresh and clean compared to the city.

We walked down the path until it opened up onto a larger one beside a road that had little to no cars on it. Mark stumbled along the track, his shoes getting caught on the small stones and Enid ended up having to grab onto his arm to make sure he didn't fall over. After a little while of walking, we moved through a metal gate that opened up onto an alleyway, the floor changing from mud to stone.

The ally was surrounded by large, brick buildings and I could hear the chiming of a clock nearby as well as the occasional voice or childish laughter. I followed the group out of the alley and onto the streets of this small village. There was a post office, a sweetshop, a butcher, baker, and a clothes shop all within walking distance of one another. At the far end of the square of shops, there was a large building with a clock on the front of it and the large wooden doors swung open. Mr Martin led us through the square and towards the building.

People walked around the square peering in shop windows or carrying wicker baskets from their arms full of bread or even flowers. Some of them stared when we walked past and some of the little children that weaved around their parent's legs and stopped to watch us walk past. I suppose we looked a little odd; a group of teenagers being led through the village square and looking out of place in comparison to everyone else. City children who didn't really belong.

"Now I know how animals in a zoo feel," Eva muttered.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Everyone's looking at us. We're like the main attraction in a zoo or circus. We're just a group of kids."

"Yes, but city kids. Although I'm not sure if that makes much of a difference."

Eva laughed and we followed the rest of the group through the village square into the hall where the noise from the younger children already echoed around the space. Mr Martin herded us inside and we stood in our own little group away from the younger ones. Before we could even be given the new instructions, Oliver had been told off for trying to scale the shelves on the wall. Mark accepted his money with an arrogant grin on his face and tucked it into his trouser pocket.

"Told you," he said.

"It doesn't count. Oliver is always in trouble."

"A bet is a bet."

I looked around the village hall. It was a large room with wood panelling around the walls and beams across the ceiling. At the front of the hall stood a large table with a woman sitting in front of it sifting through an endless stack of papers. She almost looked like a female version of Mr Martin with her glass balanced precariously on her nose, her skirt the same shade of brown as his suit and the long eyebrow hair on her left eyebrow.

"Now that's just odd," Mark whispered, staring at the woman.

"They'd make the perfect pair," Eva said. She stifled a giggle and looked away, her cheeks tinged pink.

Mr Martin walked to the centre of the room and readjusted his suit a little. Beside him stood a shorter, stout man with dark blonde hair, a white shirt and a green vest. He sort of looked like a newspaper cartoon, one of the political ones Mum had shown me once. I could feel Eva burying herself into my shoulder to try and hide the fact that she had started laughing and wouldn't be able to stop. Eva had a habit of getting into trouble since she was an uncontrollable giggler.

"Listen up! This is Mr Tate, he is the billeting officer here and he will be in charge of finding everyone a home. We will be allowing the local community to come in and choose the child or children they wish to be billeted with them. Siblings will stay together," Mr Martin said.

"Does anybody else think we need price labels attached to us?" I muttered.

"Two bob says the younger ones and the sweet-looking ones get chosen first."

"Of course they will, no one wants to take in a teenager. They'll need you on the farm, though. With all the young men off to war, you're a shoo-in for a farming family."

"Have you seen me? I have spaghetti arms!"

Mark held out his arms and then let them drop to his sides with a look of defeat on his face. We all knew that the younger ones, and those with younger siblings, were more likely to end up being chosen first and those of us without younger siblings will just be left scuffing our feet on the floor. Perhaps, if they couldn't find a host family for us, we would be allowed to get back on the train and go back home. Of course, that was a dream, but I liked to be a little optimistic.

Almost immediately, we were proven right. The first few people that walked in took one look at the younger students, many of whom had been scrubbed raw by their parents the previous night, and had chosen them. Some of the older ones went off with their siblings and some of the younger ones were chosen in groups and before long, only us older ones were left in the hall. Everyone who had been chosen had to report to the woman at the desk with their host family to have their new address noted down before they could leave.

Slowly, some of the older kids were chosen, but most of those chosen were the boys who might be better help on the farm than us girls. Mark turned out to be right about his spaghetti arms since he ended up staying with most of us that didn't exactly fit the sweet, angelic child they were no doubt looking for. Even Oliver was chosen since he looked so strong. No one wanted to accept a teenager into their house, especially those of us who were standing in the far corner in a group and did look a little unnerving.

"I told you we'd be left until last. You owe me another two bob," Mark said, resting his forearm on Enid's shoulder. She shrugged him off.

"None of us agreed to that bet. Besides, I don't think we're doing ourselves any favours by hiding out in a dark corner and talking about gambling. Come on, let's go into the light a little more." Enid grabbed Mark's hand and dragged him to the middle of the room, right in front of the door so that they would be seen the moment someone walked in.

Out of all of us, Enid was the most sensible and liked to present herself in a positive way to all who met her. When we were younger, it used to get on my nerves but with six older siblings, she always had to fight to prove herself and I couldn't really shame her for that. She was the one that made sure we all did our homework on time and actually went to school when we were supposed to. In some ways, she was the little angel on our shoulder. I was the devil.

"Maybe we should join them, there might be some sense in us not looking too appealing if we're standing in the shadows," Eva said. She chewed on her thumbnail and looked at Enid and Mark, both of whom appeared to be catching the attention of an older couple who had walked in.

"You can. I'm not all that fussed."

"You don't want to be billeted?"

"It's not that. This entire thing, the way it's all laid out, just feels wrong. If they had placed us out it wouldn't be so bad. It almost feels like we're a bunch of apples and people are looking for the perfect ones and the rest of us are faulty."

"You have an odd way of phrasing things, Syb. Come on, my legs are going numb from standing here and I need to stretch a little."

"Alright, fine. If Mr Martin wasn't here, I'd suggest a game, but as he's staring at us, perhaps we should partake in a nice stroll across the room."

Eva laughed and picked her suitcase off the ground. She watched me do the same before looping her arm through mine and the two of us walked the short distance across the room to stand with Enid and Mark.

~~~

A/N - It's another Tuesday, it's another update! I'm Eight chapters deep offline so I have plenty more to come!

Question time! Do you think Mark was right that they'll be the last ones there? What about the dynamic between the four of them?

Comment below!

First Published - March 30th, 2021