Hi everyone, I know its been ages but Ive decided to carry on with the story! Let me know what you think please!
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"Hey, in five minutes my pain will be over ... but you'll have to live with the knowledge that you sent an honest man ... to die", Joey gazed into the distance dramatically.
The twins erupted into wild applause, grinning up at Joey as he rehearsed his play audition with Chandler.
"Oh man, that was so cool, you told HIM!" exclaimed Jack. "Yeah, that was even better than Barney" Erica chimed in. Jack nodded in agreement with his sister.
"Aww, thanks guys, that means a lot, I'm really excited for this audition" Joey smiled at the twins. "Now, for this next part, the guy goes back to his cell to smoke a cigarette", Joey looks back at Chandler.
"Well, lets carry on then", nodded Chandler.
"I can't smoke in front of the kids, we can rehearse some more later".
Chandler agreed so the four settled down to watch the next best thing, an episode of Barney.
xxx
"Ok guys, here you go" Rachel handed out drinks orders to the three guys, Monica and the twins, who were all hanging out in Central Perk after school. She muddled all the orders up as usual but the friends just smiled, and quickly switched drinks as soon as she headed back to the counter. Well, everybody except Erica, who tried to hold on to her huge latte without her mom noticing.
"Um, nice try kiddo, but I don't think you need any more caffeine, back to your apple juice", Monica raised her eyebrows at her daughter, used to her tricks.
"Aww man, I wanted to make a moustache with all the froth! Besides you guys all say caffeine is good for you in the morning, maybe I need some too!" Erica tried to convince her mom.
"Oh, yeah, and what would caffeine help you do, throw more paint at Greg Matthews in art class" Monica looked disapprovingly at Erica.
"Ohhhh, um, you know about that..."
"Yeah, and maybe I would have known about it earlier if you had given me the note from Mrs Jenkins rather than screwing it up at the bottom of your backpack"
"Uh oh, busted!" Jack looked across at his sister, glad he wasn't the one to be the cause of that annoyed look on his mom's face.
"I'm sorry mom, I won't do it again, promise, it was a mistake", Erica looked up at her mom with what she hoped was an innocent smile.
"You better not young lady, or there will be no more softball for the rest of the season."
Erica nodded her head at her mom to assure her, knowing she better not get caught throwing paint again as her mom was known for following through with threats, and incident was forgotten. That was the good thing about their mom, she may get pretty mad at the twins when they got into trouble, but once she had disciplined them she moved on and they were forgiven for whatever they had done wrong. Monica tried to give them as much credit as she could, they had been through a pretty tough time already, for six year olds.
xxx
"Ok, you all promise?" Monica calls out as she emerges from her bedroom in a dress she hasn't worn since before the twins were born, and newly straightened hair which she wasn't quite sure about, but Rachel had assured her made her look amazing!
"Yeah yeah, we promise, we'll be good", the group shouted in reply.
"Ok, good, because this is the first guy I've really dated in a while, and the twins are at mom and dad's because I don't wanna weird them out, and I don't need you guys scaring him off".
xxx
Later that night Monica returns from her date.
"Ok, so, come on, let me have it, start the Allan bashing". Monica gears herself up, preparing for all her friends to start picking faults at her new maybe-kinda boyfriend.
The room was quiet..."um, ok, I'll start, how about they way he ... no, I'm sorry, I can't do it, we all loved him" Ross smiled at Monica.
"Yeah really, we did, he's great" the group all nods at her, grinning.
They all started saying their favourite things about Allan. Monica stepped back, smiling. Well this was new. She could understand how they weren't keen on the twins dad, but even the few guys she had dated since, her friends had managed to find something wrong with each. Monica wasn't sure if it was because they genuinely didn't like the guys, or just because they were overprotective of the single mom, but she was definitely glad they were so keen on Allan.
She zoned back into the conversation to find them saying something about his smile.
"Yes!" exclaimed Phoebe "just like the man in the shoe!"
Everybody looked blankly at her.
"You know, the nursery rhyme ... there was a crooked man..". More silence. "Oh boy, this is when you need the twins about, they'd know who I mean".
"Hey, yeah, when Jack and Erica get back, please don't say anything about Allan, I don't want them to know just yet, they don't need any more change in their lives".
Everybody nodded their agreement.
xxx
"A thumb?" everybody gasped at Phoebe, horrified at the soda can she had brought in to show them, complete with floating thumb inside.
"Well maybe its a contest, you know, collect all five type of thing" Chandler suggested.
"Does anyone want to see?" Phoebe waved the can in front of the group.
"No!" all the adults shouted disgustedly.
"Yes!" Jack and Erica leapt up from their place on the floor where they had been busy coloring in at the coffee table.
"Oh man, that is the coolest thing ever" Jacks eyes widened as he peered into the can.
"Ohhh my gosh, Phoebe please can I take it to show and tell tomorrow, everyone in our class will be so jealous" Erica begged.
"No, no, guys, sit down" Monica gestured to the twins to return to their coloring books. "You are not taking a thumb in a soda can into your classroom, I'll get called into the Principals office for sure, and I'd like to avoid that for as long as possible please".
The twins sighed dejectedly and went back to the table.
"We were so close to being the coolest kids in first grade" Erica murmured to her brother.
Jack nodded his annoyance.
Jack nodded his annoyance. The next day while the twins were at their after school activities (softball for Erica, science club for Jack), Monica rounded up her friends to tell them she was going to break up with Allan. They all seemed pretty upset about it, considering they'd only known the guy for about a week, but she knew they would get over it, especially once she distracted them with that leftover cheesecake she had brought back from work. Monica was just glad she had followed her instinct and not introduced him to the twins. She guessed the old saying 'what they don't know can't hurt them' really was true sometimes.
