PENELOPE

"Micah, are you through packing? I bloody well hope so, you've been at it for ages. You do know we're only going for two weeks" I call to my husband from our kitchen.

"Yes Penny, I finished this morning" he calls back at me. We're shouting through the house, and I reckon even the neighbours can hear us, nothing new really though. All we do is shout. Not in a bad way, me and Micah are doing brilliant but we've never been a very quiet family. The boys are the loudest, Kyle and Gabriel. All they do is shout, at me, at Micah, at Stevie. It drives me spare most days, but I've been so excited to get away from work and see Simon it hasn't bothered me much. I'm even excited to see Baz, the wanker.

I pour myself a cup of tea and walk up the stairs to Stevie's room. My mum was none too pleased that I named my daughter after Stevie Nicks, but I told her that as I birthed her she really didn't have a say in the matter. When I walk in, said daughter is sitting on her bed looking forlorn.

"Darling, what is the matter?" I ask her, giving her my cup of tea. She takes it gratefully and I'm rewarded with a small smile. My daughter looks like my husband, tall, dark brown hair and a small nose. She does have my skin though, a dark caramel colour and she wears glasses like I do.

"I don't know Mom, I'm so excited to see Charlie and everyone, I just feel like they're our only friends. I mean Gabe and Kyle have always had each other to hang out with, and they get along with Jack really well, I just don't really have any friends here" she says. I know what she means, I find most Americans pleasant enough I just have never really gotten close with anyone here.

"That's not true you have that one girl, bloody hell, what's her name, the one that was over a few weeks ago" I struggle to remember. The truth is, I know Stevie has never had many close friends, except for Charlie Snow-Grimm-Pitch. Mouthful, I know. She looks at me pointedly.

"Mom, can't we move to England? I want to go to Watford, like you did, like Gran did, like Simon and Baz and Charlie and Jack and anyone I've ever felt close to" she pleads. This is not the first time she's asked me this, Gabriel and Kyle have mentioned it too, but Stevie's been nagging me for years.

"I'll talk to dad" I sigh. Micah's not going to like this. He's happy in America, teaching Normals at Harvard and collaborating with my dad on magickal science journals.

"Really?" she asks her eyes shining. I roll my own and place my hand on her leg.

"Yes, really, now finish packing, we're leaving in an hour" I tell her and leave to go check on the boys. Both of our sons look like me, Gabriel even got my ginger hair, which is strange because I always thought it was a result of a poorly cast haircutting spell.

In their shared room, things are strewn everywhere. Various books and rubbish litter the ground and the clothes hamper is overflowing with nasty smelling laundry. My boys are both hurriedly tossing anything they can get their hands on into a large case.

"I see you lot didn't start early like Dad" I ask leaning against the door frame. Our eldest, Kyle grins sheepishly.

"Sorry Mom! Can't you help us?" he pleads. I roll my eyes again and point my ring towards the room.

"Make haste, not waste" I say, only relatively annoyed and the rubbish disappears. Gabriel looks at me pleadingly and I sigh, "Everything's sorted" the clothes in the hamper fold themselves neatly and fly into the case and the books on the floor soar into the shelves.

"Honestly, you could've done this yourselves" I say.

"Yeah but I can never get the clothes to fold right, and plus Gabe can't find his wand" Kyle justifies.

"It's under his bed" I comment and walk away towards my room where my husband is placing his laptop into the traveling bag,

"You know, it's not fair for you to reprimand them for not packing on time, you haven't even started" he grins at me

"Maybe, but I'm their mother and I can do whatever I please" I wink at him. He rolls his eyes and kisses me on the lips, placing his hands on my waste.

"And it's your fault their so disorganised" he argues further grinning.

"Yeah, how do you figure?" I ask him, my eyebrows raising.

"Well, they can't have inherited it from me, all I do is organise" he's started to kiss my neck at this point, and I'm flushed all over. When I start to undo his belt buckle he pulls away, smirking.

"Nuh uh, you have packing to do, my dear" he gets his luggage and drags it out of our room.

"Bloody tease" I shout at him and I can hear his laugh carrying down the stairs.

SIMON

Baz and I are lying on our bed, completely knackered. Or at least I am, he looks as if he could go for another few hours. He leans up to kiss me on the mouth and I sigh into him.

"Baz, I'm bloody tired, and starving, can't we get some food" I plead and he chuckles.

"Of course, I'll call in some takeaway yeah?" he grins at me and I smile. He's still awfully fit, even after all these years. His dark hair only has a few spots of grey and his face is practically line free. I'm pretty sure Charlie gets shit about it from her schoolmates, I overheard her talking on the phone the other day, she was going on and on saying, "Crowley Melinda, no my Dads are not that fit, please leave it" I dunno about me, but she's spot on about Baz. Wanker.

"Baz?" I ask him just as he's about to walk out of the room.

"Yes Snow, we can get curry"

"No, not that, well yes, I would like curry, but I have another question" he stops moving and looks at me heatedly.

"Yes?"

"Well, uhmm" I struggle and he rolls his eyes.

"Use your words Snow"

"DoyoustillthinkI'mfit?" I mumble out and he laughs out loud.

"Yes, you idiot, we just shagged for three hours straight" he ruffles his hair and shakes his head, "Merlin and Morgana, Simon, where do you come up with this shit?"

"I know you love me, but that doesn't necessarily mean you think I'm fit, I mean I think you're absolutely gorgeous but that's obvious and— "

"Snow, you're positively scrummy, now let me order some food so I can show just how much" he winks and I blush. I move to grab my phone from the bedside table to check my messages. There's one from Penny, one from Jack, and two from Charlotte. I open Penny's first, 'What d'you think about us moving back? Stevie's been on me about it again. I'm going to talk to Micah about it but I need you and Baz to back me up' I grin widely and type out a quick response, 'Bloody brilliant, we're on it'.

"Baz, Penny's talking about moving back" I shout and I hear him drop something in the sink. Probably a blood bag. He pokes his head in and smiles, his fangs popped.

"About time, I'll be tasked with convincing Micah, of course" he says, knowing that I fumble too much with words to ever be nonchalant about anything like he is.

"Yeah, she said both of us but I reckon that means mostly you" I respond and he starts putting his clothes on, "I have to go collect the food, I'll see you in a bit" would offer to get it, but as I can't drive, that wouldn't be helpful. I hear the front door close and I return my attention to my phone. I open Jack's message curiously, he usually can't be bothered to text, 'Dad, I need your advice, it's about girls' I'm shocked, really, he's never sought romantic advice from either of us; he's usually pretty good with girls, slick and charming like Baz. I type back quickly, 'sure mate, what d'you need'. Finally, I look at Charlotte's texts, 'Dad, Jack and Fi are going to kill me, they're already drinking' I guess that explains Jack asking for advice. I hope he still asks me, I'm really curious as to why he asked me and not Baz. It's no bloody secret I'm shit with talking. Her next message reads, 'Landed, safely, Aunt Mordy's driving us to Gran's' nice of Fiona and Jack to let me know they're alive. I text her back, 'Glad to hear, luv, and why don't you join them, it is holiday' I add a winky face to the message and send it. Charlie very rarely drinks, she's only fifteen, but I reckon it is holiday and she's with family, she should have fun, 'get hammered' as Gabriel and Kyle say.

Thinking about my kids and waiting for Baz to return, I start my packing, whipping out my wand and casting a clumsy, Everything's Sorted, on the wardrobe. My clothes come whipping out, all landing haphazardly in the case. Though my magic came back a couple years after the Mage's defeat, I've never been ace at household spells. I sigh and start folding them and placing them in properly. I almost through when I hear the door open and the smell of curry and butter chicken fills the flat.

"Honey, I'm home" Baz calls in a poor American accent and I rush out to eat, leaving my luggage almost packed.

STEVIE

Mom has got everyone's luggage packed tight in the car and the boys are already in the back. They're playing with hair colour spells, trying to change Gabriel's ginger into purple, or at least that's what I think they're doing because they keep trying Deep Purple lyrics. I roll my eyes and tell them that it's never going to work, the lyrics themselves have nothing to do with hair, and not enough people listen to Deep Purple anyway.

"Fuck off Stevie" Kyle responds and I sigh and climb into the car pointing my ring at Gabriel's head, "you're turning violet, violet" and his ginger hair turns a violent shade of purple.

"How do you do that?" Kyle says with not a small amount of annoyance. Gabe's just running his fingers through his hair, trying to pull it in front of his face.

"Holy shit it worked, thanks Sis" he smiles at me.

"Mom, showed me" I smirk and they groan. My brothers think I've gotten more magic than they have, but me and my mom think it I'm probably just smarter than them in general.

"Why doesn't she ever show us anything cool, I mean we're older we should get more spells" Gabe complains and I roll my eyes. My dad caught the end of that conversation as he climbed into the driver's seat.

"Yeah, but she actually listens to us" he says and both of my brothers start to complain.

"We listen, oh my god, mom is just biased towards her because she's a girl, she—"

"Kyle please don't attempt to talk about feminism you'll just dig yourself in a hole" Mom says as she climbs in the passenger's seat, effectively putting an end to what was sure to be a highly entertaining rant, "Alright, everything's ready, let's carry on shall we" she says brightly, turning back to look at all of us. She winks at me and my dad starts the car, and we're off to JFK.

PENELOPE

The flight seems like the best environment to broach the topic of moving to Micah. He's seated in the aisle and I'm crammed in the centre seat, which seems unfair because I definitely take up more room than he does, the bloody boobs alone take up more room than he does, the skinny arsehole.

"Micah?" I smile at him sweetly and he smirks and rolls his eyes.

"Yes, Penny" he says, not turning away from his book.

"I was talking to Stevie earlier, and she mentioned how excited she was for this trip" I start,

"Yes, we're all excited, I haven't seen Simon and Baz since last summer" he says disinterestedly.

"Well, she mentioned how she would really like to go to Watford next term and I was wondering—"

"She could do the exchange program I did, yes I think she would really enjoy that" he says and I grimace. This is going to be harder than I thought

"Well, actually I was thinking maybe we could all spend some time in England, we could stay in our flat, we never did sell it and the estate agent says it's still in good condition" My voice has taken a pleading tone and I know he can hear it. He looks at me and sighs.

"Yes, I guess it's inevitable at this point" he says dejectedly and my heart soars as I grin widely.

"Really?" I ask, my voice unnaturally high.

"Yes, really, and you can call off Baz, I know you've probably texted them"

"Oh, brilliant, Micah I love you, I could shag you right here" I beam at him and he chuckles and kisses my nose.

"Maybe, let's wait till we land" he winks and I grab his hand and lay my head on his shoulder. I can't wait to tell Simon.