A/N: This is the second book in the companion trilogy, Familiar Faces. It is a Phike modern day AU story set in 2018, and will be about their life. It will feature the main six characters including Mondler and Roschel as couples, and probably some new characters too. Assume that Phoebe and Mike are played by Lisa Kudrow and Paul Rudd, as this won't be stated throughout the novel to avoid unintentionally breaching any Copyright or Privacy regulations. Will be written simultaneously with the other two stories from the POV of Mondler and Roschel respectively, so keep an eye out for those as well as this one.
Please also review this one and the others, as this makes such a difference in terms of holding me accountable for updating and also allows me to interact with you guys and potentially incorporate some of your own ideas.
Chapter 1 – Phoebe
"Do you want some of your rose tea?" Mike asks me from the kitchen.
"Yes please," I say, sitting down on the couch with our twins, Adeline and Christopher. They were watching some kind of weird TV show that I guess eight year olds enjoy.
After a few minutes of me focusing on the TV, Mike came over to the couch with a tray of tea and cinnamon French toast for me and the twins.
"Thanks, babe," I say to Mike, kissing him lightly on the cheek.
"Is that for us?" Adeline asks, her eyes lighting up when she saw the tray.
"Yes," I say, happily. Her enthusiasm made me happy as I never really got to experience enthusiasm over the kind of trivial things that excite young children at her age, but with her and Christopher it was like I was experiencing it first-hand.
Christopher and Adeline reach for the French toast, and I take a slice for myself before it's all gone. Mike is a ridiculously good cook, almost rivalling Monica. I move over on the couch so that there is room for Mike to sit down.
"You're the best," I tell Mike.
"No, you are the best," Mike says, wrapping his arm around me.
I kiss Mike on the cheek as a way of thanking him for what he was saying. We sit together and watch the twins. I'm glad to have this moment of peace now, because I know that when I get to the kindergarten it will be far from peaceful. It was sad having to give up my job as a masseuse to be only a hobby, but it wasn't financially supportive enough when Mike and I had the kids. I don't mind looking after the kids, and they seem to like my creative ideas for activities to do.
The credits start rolling on the TV, and so I switch it off. "Kids," I start to say to Adeline and Christopher. "Go and start getting ready and I'll be up there soon to help!"
They run off together, which leaves Mike and I to start washing up the breakfast dishes and getting ready for the day.
"How are you feeling about work?" I ask Mike, whilst drying up a plate.
"Pretty good," Mike says. "I have that wedding performance that I told you about a while ago."
"Oh yeah," I say, remembering our conversation. As a pianist, Mike often gets called out to play at weddings and in theatres or concerts. It's very much a freelance job, which is also why I had to get a job that had more of a stable wage. "You'll do great."
"Love you, babe," he says, grinning as he hands me another plate to wash up.
We manage to get the washing done quicker than I had expected, as I had mentally overestimated the time I had thought it would take. "I'm going to go and check on Addie and Chris," I tell Mike, "so the bedroom's all yours for the moment."
"Thanks, Pheebs," he says.
I walk up the stairs, and see that the twins' door is ajar. I continue to make my way across the landing, and twist the doorknob open. A feather flies past me, and it takes a minute for the bedroom to come in focus. I can now see that there are a large amount of loose feathers on the floor, and two screaming and laughing children on their respective beds, clutching pillows.
"What did we say about school mornings not being an appropriate time for pillow fights?" I say, trying not to laugh.
Christopher speaks first. "Since you weren't up here, and weren't supposed to know, Addie and I thought that it didn't count," he says, shrugging. "The mess ratted us out though," he adds, looking around at the mess that surrounded him and his sister.
Adeline speaks up afterwards, sounding slightly nervous. "I hope we're not in trouble, Mom," she says, sheepishly.
I survey the room whilst trying to think. "You aren't in trouble with Dad and I," I start to say, "but can you both help me clear it up and then we'll call it even?"
Adeline and Christopher both nod at me in agreement. Addie starts trying to gather the feathers up, and Chris starts moving the pillows around so they both have an equal amount on their beds. I start helping Addie with the feathers, and then move on to assessing the damage done on the pillows.
"Pheebs!"
I hear Mike coming towards the bedroom and shout, "Come on in here!" Mike appears at the bedroom door, and looks around. "It looks like you guys have had a lot of fun in here," he says to the twins. "Almost too much," he adds afterwards. I can tell that he is struggling to keep a straight face.
He looks at me, and asks, "Pheebs, do you want to take a break to go and get dressed and I'll take over?"
"Thanks," I say, leaving the damaged pillow pile that I had created and started navigating my way out of the bedroom.
I made a beeline straight to Mike and I's bedroom, which was on the opposite side to the twins. When I got inside, I could see that Mike had made an effort to tidy his side of the bed and had even tidied mine. I made a mental note to thank him later, and walked towards the shared closet. I chose a casual outfit which included one of my fluffy jumpers and jeans because it was fall and they were also practical to wear when dealing with young children.
When I was done in the bathroom, I decided to go check on Mike and see how the progress with the bedroom was coming along. I also remembered that neither of the twins were dressed, and so I was going to make sure that they made a start with that because they didn't have much time left. I was supposed to be driving them, since the kindergarten that I work at was right next door to their school.
Mike comes out of the bedroom before I get to there. "Pheebs, we've cleared up as much as we can – I think someone will have to hoover later. Nevertheless, both Addie and Chris are actually starting to get ready now."
I heave a sigh of relief. "Thank you so much, Mike," I say, "You're an absolute lifesaver."
"It's all part of being a father and being part of a family," he says, "but I appreciate the sentiment."
I move closer towards Mike, and we hug. I pull apart from him soon after, and walk to the bedroom. When I walk in, I see that Addie and Chris have actually started to get ready and that the bedroom looks considerably less messy.
"Hey, Mom," Chris says, tugging a jumper over his head.
Adeline walks over towards me, and motions for me to help her zip up the back of her dress. She is wearing tights underneath, and I see that she has a cardigan on her bed which makes me feel less worried that there would be any chance of her getting too cold.
"How are you two feeling about going back to school?" I ask the twins.
Christopher speaks first. "I just don't want it to boring," he says, "and I want to be in the same class as Addie, so I'm not completely alone."
"I'm sure you will be together," I say, hoping that the confidence in my voice reassures Chris. "Even so, you definitely wouldn't be alone for long because you are friendly and likeable."
Chris hugs me as his way of thanking me.
Once both of the twins are done getting changed, I usher them into the bathroom. The only reason I have to supervise them is because they have a track record of covering each other in Mike's shaving foam amongst other creative but naughty behaviour.
Luckily for me, they are both done soon with only Addie's failed attempt at grabbing my dry shampoo and spraying it as if it was perfume at Chris. I grab my coat from my room with the intention of walking straight back out, but I see Mike.
"Are you off now?" I ask him, slightly confused as to why he is still here.
"Yeah," he says. He notices my confused expression, and adds, "I had to sort my hair because the classic bed hair look wasn't quite what I was going for."
I laugh, and move so that Mike can walk past me. "Have a good day, babe!" I shout.
"You too, Pheebs!" he shouts in return.
I walk downstairs, and see that Chris and Addie are waiting patiently for me. I heave another sigh of relief because it meant that I had another potential worry about this morning after the other events covered. "Go outside and wait for me beside the car," I tell them.
I grab my scarf from where it is hanging up with the various old coats that are no longer in use, and walk out the door. I take one footstep outside onto the concrete sidewalk and realise that, in all my endeavours to be organised, I have forgotten to wear my boots. I take a step back through the door, and put the boots on. I walk back out, locking the door after myself.
In my handbag, I reach for the car keys and unlock the car. "Let me go in the front!" Addie shouts, running towards shotgun before Chris can get a chance. He realises, though, and runs straight to join his sister.
"Okay, okay," I say, fumbling in my handbag for my purse. "I'm going to have to toss a coin to help us decide fairly who gets to call shotgun this morning, and whoever doesn't will get it later."
Chris and Addie watch me apprehensively. "Heads or tails?" I say.
"Heads!" Chris says.
"Okay," I say, flipping the coin. "It's tails, so you get it Addie."
Chris groans in disappointment whilst Addie celebrates, triumphantly. She runs toward the car, and hops into the shotgun seat. I used the key to turn the ignition on, and start to back out of the parking space into the main road.
Addie leans over and turns on the radio. It's still tuned into Mike and I's favourite radio station that play older music that Addie and Christopher don't like, and so I am not so bothered when Addie changes it to one of the modern pop radio stations.
"I love this song!" she exclaims. I don't recognise the beat, but the lyrics are catchy. Regardless of that, it was really not my favourite, but I could appreciate the lyrics as they seem drastically better than any of mine were. I still have the guitar that I used to play up somewhere in the loft, but I don't have the time to attempt to write any new songs because that Phoebe has been long dead. I definitely have days where I miss it, though.
It doesn't take long before I am pulling up at Addie and Chris's school. "Do you want me to come in with you guys?" I ask.
"We'll be fine," Chris says, badly attempting to sound confident because I can hear the nervousness in his voice.
"The offer is there if you want it," I say, as they climb out and say goodbye to me.
I drive on until I reach the kindergarten building further down the road. I drive through the automatic bollards until I come to the staff car park. I back the car into the nearest free spot, and pull the key out of the ignition. I pick up my handbag off of the shotgun seat as I had put it there after Addie had got out, and jumped down from the seat. I slammed the door shut, and started to walk towards the kindergarten reception.
"Good morning, Phoebe!" the receptionist, Martha says as I scan the name tag that's tied around my neck by a lanyard to sign in.
"You too, Martha," I say, whilst walking through the automatic double doors. I make a beeline down the corridor for the staff room, where I already see some of my colleagues.
As I am making my way towards the sink and the cafetiere, I hear someone say my name and turn around. It's one of my fellow colleagues, Joanna.
"Hey! How are you?" I ask. "I feel so rude but I didn't see you come up behind me."
"Oh, don't worry," Joanna says, sounding apologetic and slightly embarrassed. "I'm doing well – what about you? How have the twins been?"
"I'm doing good," I say, "but I had a bit of a stressful morning. The twins decided that it was a good idea to have a pillow fight instead of getting ready, and so Mike and I had to help them clean up the feathers and assess the damage."
"That sounds pretty stressful," Joanna says.
"Yeah," I say, trying to stifle the urge to laugh. Thinking about what the twins did now that I am no longer in a rush now makes me laugh because it is surprisingly funny. "It was good fun, in the end. Keeps life interesting!"
Joanna agrees, as we continue walking toward the cafetiere. "Do you want me to make you a coffee?" she offers.
"Thank you so much," I say. "You really don't have to."
I wait against the counter whilst Joanna makes to mugs of coffee. I take mine from her when it's ready and thank her. "I wish we could talk more," I say, looking at the clock that was on the other side of the room, "but I have to get to lesson in less than five minutes."
"It's fine," Joanna says, also looking in that direction. "Shit!" she exclaimed. "I have to go too!"
"Let's walk in that direction together," I say, and she agrees.
A/N: And that wraps up the third story and first chapter! I hope that you enjoy this book as much as you did with the beginnings of the other two novels in the Familiar Faces companion trilogy! Another friendly reminder that you are more than welcome to check out the other two books, from the POVs of Mondler and Roschel respectively, and leave your thoughts in a review and any other suggestions. Finally, please read and review this one, and I will happily welcome suggestions for future plot ideas! Thank you so much again for sticking with me and giving my books a chance – it means the world to me and I honestly can't put in two words how grateful I am for all the support.