"Once upon a time, there were two star-crossed alchemists..."
"No, don't start it like that!"
Phoebe Tatum looked up from the book she'd been writing in whilst she'd been talking. "What's wrong with that?"
"It's too cliché," Kia whined. "This is a good story – you can't belittle it with 'once upon a time'."
Phoebe sighed and crossed out the line she'd just written. "Fine. What do you suggest then?" She didn't even want to think about how an eight-year-old knew what the words 'cliché' and 'belittle' meant. Her little sister's vocabulary was far too advanced for her age. She was definitely a Tatum.
"Something more modern," Kia insisted. "You've got to tell this right."
Phoebe had always been an avid reader, as well as a good storyteller. After hearing her eldest sister's tale – which she personally felt was the most romantic love story imaginable – she'd decided to finally start putting those words into writing herself.
Kia, the youngest in the family, had always been the biggest fan of her stories, which was why she was Phoebe's guinea pig and helper for this project. Though Kia still loved Phoebe's stories, she was growing up and Phoebe had to upgrade her storytelling style in order to keep her little sister's interest.
"Since it's a love story, why don't you start with a breakdown of the composition for the human heart?" suggested Cecily, the second eldest sister and third eldest sibling in the family, who was sat opposite them.
She was also very into books like Phoebe was, but her reading materials were more scientific textbooks, rather than Phoebe's fictional stories. As a studying alchemist, her interest in biology was only furthered even more. Her mind was forever alive with elements and equations.
"The what?"
"Hydrogen, calcium, oxygen, carbon, magnesium, sodium..." Cecily began to recite, but little Kia cut her off.
"This isn't science," she protested. "Carbon and magnesium aren't romantic at all!"
Cecily shrugged, looking a little offended. "It was just an idea."
"If that's the case, then you could start by saying that the two alchemists were like transition metals and soldering agents," joked Atticus, who'd been listening to his sisters' conversation in amusement. He was the second oldest in the family and a training mechanic like his father.
"Or bullets and gunpowder," added Reilly with a grin, who was three years younger than Phoebe and had a wide knowledge on firearms. He was sat on the floor beside Atticus.
"Shut up, you're ruining the whole idea!" Kia whined. "We don't want your stupid boy stuff in this!"
The two boys just laughed at her and even Phoebe couldn't stop herself from smiling. Anyone would think that Kia was the one writing the story. Cecily was still bristling over them mocking her heart composition suggestion, but thankfully, there was still one person on her side.
"I quite liked Cecily's idea," said Alice, who had just walked in. She was the oldest sibling. She was carrying a dark-haired baby in her arms, who was pulling tentatively on her hair. "Stefan, you just turned your nose up at all your toys! You can't start playing with my hair instead."
"Get his dad to take over," said Kia impatiently. "Then you can join in with story time."
"Are you kidding? He's just been playing with James for the last half an hour. I got the light end of the deal here!" Alice joked. Stefan's older brother was a notorious troublemaker. "Besides, I can still join in. Stefan's just being a little difficult is all."
"So you said you liked Cecily's idea?" Phoebe asked, still deliberating over how to even start this story.
"Yeah," smiled Alice, making Cecily beam. "It's definitely appropriate. Elements and compositions are a big part of any alchemist's life."
"Told you." Cecily stuck her tongue out teasingly at Kia, who huffed in response.
"But I also like the phrase 'star-crossed' that you used," Alice told Phoebe. She grinned. "It just sounds so romantic."
Phoebe laughed. "You've just gone for the two ideas that Kia instantly rejected."
"Well, of course I rejected them; they just don't sound like story material," Kia insisted.
"If you have such opposing views on the idea, then why don't you both try writing separate stories?" Atticus suggested, trying to play peacemaker.
Kia shook her head. "No way. Phoebe's the storyteller, not me. She has to write it." Phoebe looked quite flattered by that, despite how Kia had cast aside several of her ideas already.
"Then if that's the case, you should have a little more faith in her ideas," Alice smiled, mussing Kia's blonde hair with her free hand.
"I guess so..." Kia conceded. "Phoebe, you should write it how you want to write it."
Phoebe smiled too, looking round at her family's faces, all of whom were watching her expectantly. It was Alice's story. Surely it made sense to write in the ideas that she liked. She was sure she could compromise and find a way to include a mix of them. Storytelling was a passion of hers, after all. What was it without a little challenge?
So, to Alice and Cecily's delight in particular, she read aloud as she began to write. "Hydrogen, calcium, oxygen, carbon, magnesium, sodium..."