Chapter Four

Ethel tried not to let the awful boring meetings with her parents get to her, after all it was the only thing about being the eldest child which was bad, everything else she had experienced was amazing and fun, of course there had to be one thing she did not like about it and the girl was still enjoying her new role, well at least she was until the next evening.

Ethel and Sybil had both being doing their homework when Mr and Mrs Hallow walked in both putting on their travelling cloaks.

"Ethie darling" Mrs Hallow said to her daughter as she buttoned her cloak around her neck.

"Yes mother?" Ethel asked walking over to talk to her parents.

"We have to go to work for a couple of hours, we need you to look after Sybil" Mrs Hallow told her daughter.

"Okay but the servants will be the ones really in charge right?" Ethel asked knowing when her parents were out the servants were in charge.

"Yes but they will only be entering now and then so just watch Sybil" Mr Hallow told his daughter with a smile.

Ethel looked over at Sybil and could not help feeling slightly worried. Of course when Esmerelda was the eldest Ethel was still older than Sybil but despite this Ethel had never looked after Sybil alone, as Esmerelda was the eldest the motherly role went to her and she was in charge of both of them, but Ethel told herself not to panic, Sybil could not be that much hard work...right?

"Oh and you will need to make dinner for the both of you, Michele is not here today as his son has fallen ill, there is pizza's in the freezer" Mrs Hallow told her child casually.

If Ethel had been worried about looking after Sybil it was nothing to how she felt at being told she had to cook, Ethel had always had her meals cooked for her both at home and at school, as the family was rich they had a cook who cooked for them but there had been times Esmerelda had had to cook herself because the cook was ill or on holiday, but Ethel had never even touched a oven before so gulped.

"Can we not just order a takeaway?" Ethel asked her parents hoping they will agree so she did not have to cook.

"Ethie, that takeaway rubbish is really bad for you, plus it is a waste of money when we have perfectly good food already here" Mr Hallow replied and Ethel sighed.

"You will be fine" Mrs Hallow said kissing her daughter on the cheek as she left with her husband and Ethel started to follow them to stall them from leaving but they transferred before she got a chance too.

With her parents gone Ethel realised for the first time she was entirely in charge, if anything went wrong it was down to her but she hoped everything would go smoothly.


For a while everything went smoothly and Ethel started to relax but after half a hour Sybil started to talk.

"I am so bored can we do something?" Sybil asked her sister fed up of sitting on the sofa and watching TV.

"Okay what is it you want to do?" Ethel asked her sister

Sybil stood up and walked over to the cupboard where the sisters kept board games and varies other toys.

"Can we play a board game?" Sybil asked her sister sweetly.

"Yes okay" Ethel said before looking at the clock on the wall "But first let me put the pizza in, why don't you pick one and go and set it up?" Ethel suggested to her sister who nodded happily as Ethel went to the kitchen happy at how easy she had dealt with that problem.

Ethel took the pizza out the freezer and put it on a tray before putting it in the oven, after a few minutes of fiddling she got the oven to the temperature it told her to cook it at on the box just as there was a extremely loud crashing sound from the next room.

Ethel jumped and ran into the room to see what had happened, the floor was covered in boxes of boardgames and varies other toys, some of the boxes had flown open and the pieces were covered everywhere and Sybil was stood near the mess looking guilty.

"Sybil...what happened?" Ethel asked her sister looking at the mess wondering how she could make such a mess picking a game.

"I was reaching for a game and it was at the top and they all fell" Sybil replied softly. Ethel sighed but cast some spells sending the games back into the cupboard, disaster avoided she told herself.

"Try to be more careful" Ethel told her little sister "Come on then let's play, what are we playing?" Ethel asked as she went and sat down at the table with her sister.

"Pictionary" Sybil said happily

"Fantastic, I can't draw to save my life" Ethel replied not liking the game her sister had chosen.


The two girls spent a while playing the board game together when a loud alarm started to go off.

"What on earth?" Ethel said looking around for the trouble.

"It is the fire alarm" Sybil said covering her ears as the noise rang through her ears.

Ethel panicked then wondering what on earth was on fire when she suddenly remembered.

"THE PIZZA!" she shouted running in the kitchen and seeing smoke coming out the oven, she opened the oven and grabbed some oven gloves pulling the burned pizza out of the oven before she pointed her fingers at the fire alarm turning it off.

"I am not eating that" Sybil said as she looked at the blackened pizza with a disgusted look upon her face.

"Well obviously" Ethel said with a sigh wondering what she should do now, she opened the freezer and found a second pizza and put it in the oven thankful there was another.

This time Ethel remembered the pizza and served it up to Sybil but when she gave it to her the girl started to whinge.

"Err it has mushroom, I hate mushroom" Sybil complained as she saw it on the pizza.

"Pick it off" Ethel told her sister.

"But I know it was there" Sybil replied folding her arms and pushing her plate away.

Both Sybil and Ethel were picky eaters but this was not normally a problem as Esmerelda had memorised what they will eat and what they will not touch, at school the girls hated the food but ate knowing if they didn't they would starve.

"Sybil stop being so picky and eat it" Ethel told her sister annoyed at her.

"I don't like it" Sybil complained in a whiny voice.

Ethel grabbed the pizza and took the mushrooms off before putting it back on the plate

"There now will you eat it!" Sybil told her sister very annoyed.

"No!" Sybil replied not wanting the food at all.

"Sybil will you listen!" Ethel shouted at her little sister.

"No, you can't tell me what to do you are not my mum!" Sybil replied rudely to Ethel before she started to walk away.

"Excuse me...Sybil Hallow get back here right now!" Ethel shouted after her.

Sybil was not listening she walked towards the door and walked out as Ethel followed her.

"Get back down here and eat your dinner, don't make me tell mum and dad you have been misbehaving" Ethel said to her little sister beyond annoyed.

"I don't like you, leave me alone" Sybil told her sister as she rushed up the stairs and into her bedroom.

Ethel went back to the front room knowing she had not dealt with the situation right and wondering what the trick Esmerelda had was, the older girl never seemed to have that problem with Sybil and if something happened she normally could save the situation but Ethel had no idea what to do.

Ethel had never realised before how difficult it was to look after her little sister by herself and in that moment the novelty of being the oldest started to wear off slightly.